» Maintenance

The Difference Between http://www and http://

I like to consider myself pretty knowledgeable when it comes to blogs and the internet. By no stretch am I some uber genius, but, I do like to think I have a pretty vast knowledge of the blog-o-sphere. However, recently I was informed by a good friend of mine that I might have been doing something very wrong when it came to creating and maintaining blogs. Something so simple that could have a catastrophic effect on my blog. Something that most of us don’t even pay attention to.

You’ll notice that when you visit a website and/or blog, sometimes the blog URL will read “http://www.sitename.com and at other times it will read “http://sitename.com”. I never really thought this was much of an issue. I actually never even gave it a second thought. But apparently, I should have. The problem with this situation is that most search engines treat those addresses as two different domains, splitting your backlink count. That in turn effects a variety of things, especially your PageRank and where you place on search engine index’s. Now, be aware, not all websites and/or blogs have this issue but a fair amount do.

So the question begs - how do you fix it? Well, there are two ways to go about this. The more difficult way is to create a 301 Permanent Redirect using PHP which the average blogger simply lacks the knowledge to do. So, for those of us who need the easy road, there is Enforce www. Preference plugin. This plugin is extremely easy to use. Simply install it, activate it, and it will automatically create a 301 Permanent Redirect page for you and you’ll no longer need to worry about search engines confusing your website/blog as if it were two totally different webpages.

To find out more about Enforce www. Preference and/or to download it, click here.

I highly recommend this tool.

Shorten your Wordpress post links with WP.ME

If you remember, a few weeks back I talked about the need to avoid URL shortening websites such as TinyURL because of potential risks to you, not only as a blogger but from a readers perspective too. As always, a bad apple in the bunch ruins a great service and people were “hiding” URL’s in these shortened links, sending people to pornographic websites and/or websites that contained viruses. So, all in all, the safe way to avoid this was to not visit any “shortened” url.

However, today I’ve found some great news from the folks over at Wordpress.com. They’ve introduced the new “WP.Me” URL shortening service which will automatically be generated in all Wordpress.com blogs.

Below I’ve listed the new features of the service:

WP.me is the only two-letter .me domain in the world.
Every blog and post on WordPress.com has a WP.me URL now.
These are all exposed in the <head> using rel=shortlink.
It doesn’t work for any URL in the world, just WP.com-hosted ones.
The links are permanent, they will work as long as WordPress.com is around.
WP.me is spam-free, because we are constantly monitoring and removing spam from WP.com.

WordPress.com bloggers should now see a ‘Get Shortlink‘ button next to your permalink when you edit or write a post.

Even more interesting is that self hosted Wordpress.org users can now use this feature as well. You’ll see it in your “stats” page.

For more information on the WP.Me links, visit the Wordpress.com blog by clicking here.

Connect With Your Readers

When blogging, one thing you always want to do is to keep in touch with your readers. You’ll always have your quiet readers who never comment, etc, but there ways to get them to speak up…without having them actually speak up, which we’ll get into later.

But to the point, it’s very important to connect with your readers to be a successful blog. Because, let’s face it, without your readers…you don’t have much of a blog, do you? There are a few ways to connect with your readers that take little time or work on your part.

The first thing you can do as a blogger is simply get involved with the comments that your readers read. For some unknown reason, many bloggers will read the comments but don’t really take the time to interact with them. I’m not sure why? I mean, in a way, you have a very small “celebrity” type personality when you own a blog, and people do enjoy hearing from you, the blogger…so take the time to write back to their comments, be it a question or not. It’s lets the reader know you are reading what they’re writing and are willing to take time out of your busy schedule to let them know they’re important.

Another important way to connect with your reader is using the “social platform” method, which is simply letting your bloggers know more about you. As a blogger, you should fill out your “About Me” areas of your blog and do so thoroughly. Readers like to know about the blog owner/author and it’s a good feeling for the reader to have more than just an idea or image in their head about who exactly you are. Pictures also work well. A face to put next to the writing really improves a readers perception of you and your blog. In addition to the “social platform” method, you also should take the time out to connect with your readers through social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace. If you don’t have an account, time to sign up. Make sure you let your readers know you have profiles on those websites as well.

Lastly, use your sites content to your advantage. Through the stats page in your blogging platform, you’ll be able to see the popular postings and what people like. In addition to that, set up public polls that will allow readers to help you decide what types of things will improve your blog. There are many readers that are quiet (as I stated above), that will be more than willing to anonymously help you improve your blog…so let them. Ask simple questions about how you can improve your blog, what they would like to see more of, see less of, etc.

It’s very important that you include your readers in your decisions, because without your readers, you have a journal…not a blog.

Using An FTP Client To Upload Files

If you’ve recently moved to your first hosting package you may be struggling to get to grips with getting the files you want online. When using a web-based host, such as Wordpress.com, you don’t have access to your root domain but once you move over to Wordpress.org (or another self-hosted platform), you’ll need to learn how to properly use an FTP Client as it will be instrumental in the installation and maintenance of your blog.

First, the term “FTP” stands for File Transfer Protocol which in simple terms is the program you’ll use to transfer files from your computer to your website. Think of it as the car which will get you from home to work.

There are many places to download FTP clients and most are free. I personally suggest you visit a trusted website like Downloads.com (click here to visit) and download whatever FTP client you’d like. They’re sorted by popularity, so, pick one of the more popular ones in case you need some support.

Once you’ve installed the program after download, the next thing you’ll need to do is input the needed information which will be the “address”, “username”, and “password”…all information you’ll receive in an e-mail from your host once you’ve paid. There might be some additional fields that would like information, such as “description” or “name” and you can fill those out if you are so inclined. Once done, “connect” and you should be connected to your blogs root domain. One final tip you might want to look at however is the “Transfer File Type”. There will be an option for “auto”, “ASCII” or “binary”. You’ll want to leave this on “auto” unless told otherwise.

After you’ve completed these steps, the last thing you’ll need to do is transfer files. You should see the files and/or folders on your computer to your left and the directory of your blog/website on the right. Simply drag them over and they’ll then be begin to transfer. That’s it! You’ve transferred files!

If you are setting up a Wordpress.org blog, once you’ve transferred over the folder/files that it tells you to do in the Wordpress instruction/readme file, you then will need to actually go to that directory (literally type it out in your web browser). For example, once the files have transferred over, you will need to type out “http://www.YOURSITENAMEHERE.com/wordpress/wp-admin” and let the script run, which will install your blog.