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Today as I stumbled through some plugins on Wordpress.org, I came across a very unique and new plugin which is called WP Post Columns. Now, I know a lot of people might not be interested in this but if you’re somebody that writes very long blog postings this is a must have. With WP Post Columns, you can now make your blog have actual columns as opposed to the huge and massive paragraphs all blog platforms default to.

If you’ve ever read a very long blog posting, it’s one massive, long, column. And if you haven’t ever read one, chances are, the appearance of length scared you off. With the new WP Post Columns, not only will you improve the look of your article and overall blog theme you’ll also intice the readers with a much more readble article. You are free to create as many columns as the width of your blog posting will allow as well, which is an improvement over the past version which only allowed a maximum of two columns.

I should add for those concerned about the entire posting being two (or three) massive columns, don’t be. You can write  normal next above and below the columned writings. So, for an example, if you were reviewing a book you could write a normal paragraph, followed by two columns of text from the book and then normal paragraphs below. By no means are you restricted with this plugin.

WP Post Columns is perfect for any magazine/newspaper style themed blogs which are becoming more popular by the day.

To download WP Post Columns or to learn more, click here.

You can also find examples of the plugin on that above page as well.

One of the more difficult things to do with blogging is promoting your blog. It’s not that it’s hard to do, however, it can be extremely time consuming…time you really don’t have. So, one thing I always do is look for ways that you can promote your blog without actually doing any of the work. One such way to do that is to sign u p at Blog Upp, which is a great and simple little service. You literally do two simple steps and you’re done. Your blog will be freely promoted without you lifting a finger.

How does it work? Simple!

First, you visit Blog Upp by clicking here. Once you’ve done so, you’ll then put in the link to your blog in the requested space and click the “get widget” button. You’ll then be given a code which you’ll copy and then paste into a “text” widget in your sidebar. That’s it. It’s really that simple.

When you return to your blog, you’ll now see a your live widget which will display a random blog that also signed up for the service. Every time you refresh, a new blog will appear…and as long as you keep that widget on your page, the same thing will be taking place with your blog on somebody elses page. It’s like blog promotion on autopilot.

There is no private information involved, no need to create an account, no annoying e-mails, nothing. It’s as simple as copy and paste and your blog will now be promoted on other blogs. A very sweet deal if you ask me, especially in this day and age of everybody trying to nickel and dime you.

There is also a 10:9 blog ratio, which means that for every 10 blogs shown on your blog, your blog will be shown 9 times on other blogs which is a very solid ratio for free promotion. And no need to worry about losing traffic. If somebody does click a link to another blog, it will open in a new tab/window so your blog is still on their page.

To visit Blog Upp, click here.

Not that long ago, browsing the internet on your cell phone was reserved for only those with fancy Blackberry’s and other smart media phones. However with the introduction of the IPhone, Android, Voyager, and many other new phone releases the popularity of “mobile web browsing” has sky rocketed and it shows no signs of slowing down. With a new Android and IPhone in the works, along with many other improved cell phones releasing and the advancement in technology, it’s important that you as a blogger aren’t left behind.

Now, you’re most likely wondering what the advancement of cell phones really has to do with you blogging. Well, for anybody that’s ever attempted to visit a blog on a mobile phone - it’s not fun. I’d almost venture to say it’s pointless, or at least was until recently. A few developers have released some plugins for Wordpress.org users that will make their blog “mobile ready” so people can visit your blog while they’re on their phone. This might not seem like a huge deal but trust me, it is. Think about all the time that people spend on their phone, waiting around at doctor appointments, for a child’s party or practice, etc. People spend a lot of time on their phones and it’s important you cover all of your bases as a blogger. Below are a few plugins you can try out that will make your Wordpress.org blog into a mobile phone ready blog. And I should note, this does nothing to effect your overall appearance. Your blog will look exactly the same as it has. It simply fixes up the way it’s displayed on mobile phones.

To download one of the below plugins, click the plugin name.

Wordpress Mobile Edition - This is an extremely popular plugin that benefits from it’s super clean and simple interface. You can even change the settings for particular phones, such as the IPhone, etc.

WordpressMobile.mobi - Another popular choice, this version makes your blog more mobile friendly and reduces load times along with configuring your pages properly for a mobile display.

MobilePress - One thing that MobilePress does that I’ve never seen before is that it allows the user to create their own “theme/template” just for mobile surfers. If you’re looking for that sort of thing, this one is for you.

WP viewMobile - This Wordpress plugin has a variety of features included, one of my personal favorites is that it will attempt to resize pictures to fit your mobile page - and does so successfuly many times. While the other plugins attempt to do this, WP viewMobile seems to have the most success doing so. A very nice feature.

All in all, you can’t really go wrong with any of the above mentioned plugins. It’s simply a matter of personal preference, and as always, download them all and try them out. That’s the beauty of the Wordpress.org software.

When you start a new blog one of the first things you’ll do in the process is get a domain name, or at least, “find” a domain name if you don’t make one up yourself. As you go along, you’ll start to notice that many two, three, four, or five letter/word domains are gone. Why? Because they’re simple to remember. Simplicity is one of the biggest advantages you need to look for when you’re trying to find a new domain. Below, I’ll run down a few important issues you’ll need to keep in mind when selecting a domain name.

1) Simplicity - As I stated above, there is a reason most simple domain names are gone. You need something easy that everybody can spell. In this situation, the shorter, the better. My best suggestion would be to keep your domain name below 10 characters. It’s also best to keep your domain at one or two words. For example, “BloggerInstitute” would be a “two word” domain. However, “BloggerInstituteOfTechnology” would be a “four word” domain and pretty much be totally worthless.

2) Easy To Remember - This is similar to the above need to keep it simple, but you need to find a name that not only you can remember but one that everybody else can as well. Just because “Auatua.com” might be a short name, it doesn’t mean people will remember it. How many websites and blogs do you visit off the top of your head? Many. So make sure you keep it simple and easy to remember.

3) Spelling Issues - This again could be thrown into the first idea of keeping it simple, but, we’re not just saying to avoid incorrect spelling of words. We’re also saying to avoid hard to spell words. For example, a word like “cappuccino” is difficult to spell for most people, so, you’d want to avoid a commonly misspelled word in your domain name.

4) .Com domain - This one is a little tricky in my book. Do I think it’s necessary? Not right off the bat, no. This is something you’d want to look into further down the road if your blog becomes a success. The reason for this however is because people will always think “.com” in their brain when they’re looking for a website/blog. Hosting companies charge a lot of money for available domain’s that end in a .com address, and with good reason. Stick with a .net or .org domain for now, but keep an eye out on an eventual move to a .com domain.