blogging 102

Reading time: 2 – 2 minutes

Something is up at Technorati. For more than a month now I have been having problems with them properly indexing one of my blogs. Despite the fact that it was being updated either manually or automatically with daily digest posts, http://www.bradsotherblog.com was simply not getting its ping through to Technorati. This just isn’t me, either.

The first suggestion they made was to manually ping your blog at http://www.technorati.com/ping this works for all of my blogs except The Other Blog. After trying that and a ticket submitted with no answer I finally complained on the post board and the blog was quickly taken care of. They apparently want to take care of people who open their mouths in public a lot faster than they do those who wait patiently for returned emails. Well that one ping they did worked exactly once, the blog updated and jumped from an authority of 8 to 14 when all was said and done.

I checked back a week later and nothing since that day had been indexed. I sent another ticket and posted on the bulletin board the same day. Three days afterwards I received a reply to the first email and was told the blog had been indexed, what they didn’t say was it was done shortly after I made the problem known on the bulletin board. I have since had to make more than half a dozen posts in order to get the blog regularly indexed. Who ever is in charge of doing that does it pretty speedily and should be rewarded for it.
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Reading time: 2 – 2 minutes

This morning HostGator has made everyone change their passwords to a strong password. This is no big deal until you go to access anything that uses your mysql database. Just a heads up, this can royally screw your blog access. Being the administrator for more than half a dozen blogs and bbs hosted on HostGator. To fix this problem you can do one of two things, but only one of them will probably get done today.

1) Cry to support for a fix.

2) Download your wp-congig.php manually change the password

To your new one then upload it overwriting the old file.

Have fun and enjoy the rest of your Memorial Day

Reading time: 2 – 4 minutes

All blogs have their problems and niche blogs are no exceptions, especially micro niche blogs. The biggest problem is the amount of content one person can write about. Darren Rowse of ProBlooger mentioned last week that one of the emerging trends were multiple author blogs for smaller blogs. This is one of the solutions to this problem, but it is only a stop gap in my opinion.

Micro niche blogs, especially in the blogosphere of blogging will eventually run out of crap to blog about no matter how many authors they have. Many long time blogging bloggers I have been reading for a few years now are really just starting to repeat themselves. They aren’t simply giving a new take on an old subject; they are basically rewriting posts they wrote a couple of years back. In my less than humble opinion, this is when you know a blogger has started jumping sharks and needs to move on. As a blogger if you find yourself doing this, you need to realize if you can’t pull it out you will be eaten by the sharks.

There are workable solutions though. First, you can add multiple authors which will help keep you going until you really have something new to write about. Two, you can slow down the pace of your posting. This is especially true for very small niches. Lastly, you can redefine or refocus your blog. There is no sin in slowly moving from one niche to another. An abrupt change might cost your readers, but so will spouting the same tired information. If you want to know what else you should be covering ask your readers, they will let you know.

In the end starting a niche blog has a lot of potential as a money maker, but you need to think about the long term when you’re starting it. Plan a year in advance if you can. Make the best uses of the resources at hand and know when it is time to move on. As always network, network, network!

Reading time: 1 – 2 minutes

There were several old combinations that worked well together but since WordPress 2.3 came out many of them stopped working properly or stopped working altogether. Fear not there are replacements out there. Unlike many of the regurgitated idiot lists currently out there, everything I list will work in WordPress 2.5 the only version of the blog software you should be running.

Ultimate Tag Warrior hasn’t been supported by the author since WordPress 2.3 came out. Many of its features and those of Bunny’s Technorati Tags, Jerome’s Keywords, and other tagging programs are easily replaced in better plugins. The All in One SEO Pack can even be replaced now.

The new power plugin combination consists of Headspace2 and Simple Tags. Between these two plugins you can hand every task that you used to require half a dozen plugins and tweaks. Read more »

Reading time: < 1 minute

Digg is probably one of the best tools you can use for driving Traffic right to your sight, but it is not for the timid. Getting Diggs is like selling cars. When I started selling cars I was on the used lot and my Sales Team Manager told me something the first day which has held true any time I have sold things. Bill told me, “Brad selling cars is like getting pussy. If you don’t ask them to do it you aren’t getting it.” Getting a Dugg is a lot like getting pussy too. Read more »