Unleash Your WordPress Blog with the Latest Platform and Traffic Plugin

Been thinking about adding a blog to your site?  It is time to take action.  The new features in WordPress now make installing nice themes and tweaks to your blog a snap that will only take a few minutes.

INSTALLING A BLOG

If you do not have a blog yet, simply go to the control panel at your site – generally www.YourSite.com/cpanel – click the Fantastico icon, and then click the option to install WordPress in a directory of your choice.  Once the blog has been installed, you will want to go into your administrative panel, which is called a dashboard.  The dashboard allows you to update the blog software, add plugins, change the look of your blog and, of course, add content.

UPDATING THE BLOG SOFTWARE

Recent versions of the blogging software have allowed you to update the software with just one click within your dashboard, and to search, review and install plugins that will enhance the power of your WordPress blog.

HOW TO WORK WITH BLOG THEMES

In its June 2009 update, WordPress took the plugin capability a step farther by expanding it to include easy theme installation.  The new WordPress Version 2.8 offers an outstanding and super easy to use theme feature that is similar to the plugin feature.  You specify what you want by searching for and viewing themes directly from the dashboard – for instance, a 3 column, blue and white layout.  Select the theme that you like and WordPress will install it right from your dashboard.  The days of unzipping and then FTP’ing your theme to your site are over and you’ll save a heck of a lot of time.

When you have installed a theme, you can change it around to how you want it to appear by editing the php pages.  The page editing process is a lot easier with WordPress’ new color-coded theme editor.  The code display in the new WordPress platform is now numbered and colored, making editing your PHP and stylesheet pages much, much easier.

If you have installed a more complicated “magazine style” theme, you will be working with Timthumb to create thumbnail images on your front page.  Timthumb and magazine style WordPress themes are pretty easy to work with, but sometimes the help file is not entirely clear because it assumes that you know things that you do not know.  At Not Guru, you can find a step-by-step tutorial, replete with screen shots, which show you how to work with magazine style WordPress themes.

RECENT TWEAKS BOOST YOUR BLOG’S SPEED

As an added bonus, the new WordPress software has removed a bunch of bugs and it runs much faster.

REASONS TO BLOG

A frequently updated WordPress blog is an incredible search engine traffic magnet.  The key is that the blog should be updated consistently. When it is, new posts generally show up in the search engines on the same day and often within hours.  There’s a way to make this process even faster and it is free.  What you do is install what is called the SEO blog plugin.  With the new plugin installation platform in WordPress, installing the blog traffic plugin takes only a few minutes and a couple mouse clicks from your dashboard.  Once installed, the plugin will tweak your blog, have you install other traffic-pulling plugins, and optimize the search engine capabilities of your blog.  It then gives you an SEO grade (like 77% or 80%).  You will see a huge difference in your blog’s performance once the SEO plugin is installed.

Because you will keep your web visitors happy with up-to-date content and the search engines constantly visiting your site, adding a blog is a powerful tool to add to your website.  Installing and maintaining a blog has never been easier, thanks to the new WordPress release.  Blog installation tips, computer help and other practical guides are provided daily at the Not Guru blog.