6 things you should do on your Wordpress blog ...

In last week’s edition of Tuesday Tips, we covered a very cool trick for Blogger.com and this week it’s time to have some fun with WordPress.

So, you’ve got a WordPress blog and you want to make sure that you’re getting the most out of it. Well here are 6 things that we think you should be doing to help make your life a little easier and your blog a lot cooler.

   1. Get Akismet
   2. Use Permalinks
   3. Get a  SiteMap
   4. Get Captcha for your comments
   5. Change your favicon
   6. Start an About Page with a contact form

1.Get Akismet

When you start creating good content on your blog, spammers will come and hunt you down. At one point, I was spending a helluva lot of time simply managing the spam that was being submitted to my blog. Then I met Akismet. It was a match made in heaven. When a new comment, trackback, or pingback comes to your site it is submitted to the Akismet web service which runs hundreds of tests on the comment and returns a thumbs up or thumbs down.

You’ll need a key in order to use the service, but you can get one on the Akismet site

Get it here
http://www.akismet.com

2.Use Permalinks

/they-just-look-cooler

When you start out using WordPress, you’ll notice that your posts are labeled with “ugly” links (like this http://example.com/?p=N). Permalinks allow you to make custom titles for your Wordpress blog entries, using either the date or the title of the post. This makes your link easier to read and also remember. When you’re in your dash board, go to the Settings -> Permalinks panel (Options -> Permalinks before WordPress 2.5), you can choose one of the “common” structures or enter your own in the “Custom structure” field using the structure tags. For more info on Permalinks and how to use them, check out the Official WordPress Codex

http://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Permalinks

3. Get a SiteMap

Most bloggers dream of being the number one search result on the Big G. Traffic, fame and money will fall from the heavens. But the first step to get to the red carpet is to let Google know you exist, along with all the other search engines out there. This is where a sitemap comes in handy. Think of it as a road map for search engines. Your sitemap tells the search engine where to find all your content and how to get around in the backroads of your blog. It also prevents it from getting stuck in dead ends, which does happen.

The very nifty Google XML Sitemaps plugin will take care of all the donkey work for you, so that you can concentrate on writing your killer content. Every time you edit or create a post, your sitemap is updated and all major search engines that support the sitemap protocol, like ASK.com, Google, MSN Search and YAHOO, are notified about the update.

Get it here: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-sitemap-generator/

4. Get Captcha for your comments.

This ties in closely with Akismet as it is geared to stop spammers from driving you bonkers. Captcha requires visitors to input a few characters to prove that they’re not mindless bots. If you have friends who are mindless bots, then no offence. The characters are alpha numeric and completely random. My favourite Captcha plugin at the moment is this one by Mike Challis:

It’s very easy to install and looks neat and tidy. You can get it here:

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/si-captcha-for-wordpress/

5.Change your Favicon

Your Favicon is the little icon that appears in the browser window when someone opens your blog. Now, you can do this is old school way by editing your theme, but this handy little plugin gives you a shockingly easy way to update your favicon

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/shockingly-simple-favicon/

It’s also great if you’re the type that keeps switching themes so you won’t have to change your favicon every time you do.

6. Get an About page

Most blogs are about the people who write them. Yet most people don’t put much about themselves on their blog. A good About page will let your readers know who you are and why you’re writing. I like to read blogs where I can see a picture of the blogger - it helps readers build a visual connection with the author, which is always great. On your about page you should also have a contact page or at the very least contact information - you never know when someone might want to advertise on your blog or let you know about an error and not leave a comment for all to see.

When it comes to contact forms, there are literally hundreds of great ones out so have a look around and see what works for you. I’ve used the cForms II plugin and it is an easy to use hassle free form. You can get it here:

http://www.deliciousdays.com

I think that once you get these quick fixes implemented on your blog, you’ll be able to offer your readers a better experience and also make your life as a blogger a little bit more bearable. I hope that this edition of Tuesday Tips has been useful!

 Original Source:
http://blog.afrigator.com/2009/06/09/6-things-you-should-do-on-your-wordpress-blog-tuesday-tips-2/