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Best SEO WordPress Plugins For High Search Engine Rankings

Kevin — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 10:22:48 +0000

When optimized correctly, WordPress performs really well when it comes to SEO and search engine results page (SERP) rankings. Out of the box, however, WordPress has a ton of duplicate content problems. For instance, if you’re not using excerpts on the home, tags, categories pages and you are displaying the entire post, that post is being shown not only on the homepage but also on the category, tags, and archives pages too. Google and other major search engines don’t think too highly of that and your search rankings will therefore suffer. Not to worry there are plenty of WP SEO plugins available to help you optimize your WP blog. Below are all the plugins, that I am aware of, that are aimed at improving WordPress SEO.

SEO Slugs - This takes out commonly used filler words in post’s slug such as: and, of, the, with, in, etc. to improve search engine optimization (SEO)

All in One SEO Pack - Most popular and most widely used SEO plugin for WordPress that lets you create titles and meta keywords and descriptions for each post/page

Platinum SEO Pack - Does almost everything All in One SEO Pack does and then some. It provides automatic 301 redirects for any permalink changes and permits you to assign index, noindex, follow or nofollow, noarchive, nosnippet, noodp, noydir meta tags to any post/page as well.

WP SEO Sniper

Allows you to apply nofollow to any links
Apply Noindex to any posts/pages
Automatically build a footer page menu
Create custom page title
Add meta keywords and meta description to posts/pages
Ability to easily add Google Analytics and verify site with Google
Permits assignment of custom CSS file towards a single page/post for individualized styling of single post/page
Ability to perform a 301 redirection on the page to reassign PageRank
Use of the 301 redirect feature to cloak affiliate links.

WordPress Tweaks - Provides several SEO tweaks as well as other WordPress customization to the admin, comments, pings, posts, nofollow assignments, and security settings.

Robots Meta - Ability to noindex feeds and prevent indexing of specific posts, pages, and archives. Easy assignment of noindexing a wide range of content

WP SEO Master - Includes meta module for creating titles, keywords, and descriptions for posts/pages. Noindex and nofollow modules allow you to assign these attributes to specific locations in your blog

HeadSpace2 - Provides lots of flexibility for the arrangement of site elements, lets you assign tags, create descriptions, page titles, blog name and blog description, ability to change theme on each page, ability to load a plugin for a specific page only, assignment of noindex and nofollow attributes, easily integrate your favorite traffic stats tracking service (i.e. Google Analytics, StatCounter, etc.).

SEO Title Tag - Permits custom creation of title tags, mass editing of title tags and slugs across you entire blog, ability to define title tags for 404 error pages

Google XML Sitemaps - Generates a Google friendly XML sitemap for your blog that is automatically updated when you edit or create a post and all the major search engines are notified of the changes

Homepage Excerpts - Automatically lists posts as excerpts instead of full posts to reduce content duplication and improve SEO

SEO Friendly Images - Automatically adds proper alt and title attributes to all your blog’s images

Simple Tags - Lets you assign tags to pages, autocompletion of tags as you enter them, supports click tags, embedded tags, related tags, suggested tags from Yahoo!, Tag The Net, and Local Tags

Yoast Breadcrumbs - Quickly and easily add breadcrumbs to your theme to improve navigation for your readers and easier crawling by search engines

There you have it. With the help of these plugins, you should be able to improve your SERP rankings without too much difficulty. Let me know if I’ve left any important ones out.

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This is a post from ToMuse: Wonderings of a Web Consumer

Best SEO WordPress Plugins For High Search Engine Rankings

20 Essential Must Install WordPress Plugins For Your New Blog

Kevin — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 05:55:38 +0000

Everytime I setup a new blog for myself or help someone else start their own blog there are some essential WordPress plugins that must be installed first and foremost. What are plugins you ask? Quite simply, plugins are tools that extend the functionality of WordPress (WP). Most of them are available for free at the Official WordPress Plugin Repository where they can be downloaded and installed on your own self-hosted WordPress blog. Beware however that the search engine there really stinks, thus I’ve created my own (WordPress Plugin Search Engine) that works much better at finding relevant plugins at the Official WordPress Plugin Repository and a few other repositories.

While each plugin comes with its own set of simple instructions on how to install it, generally it is just a simple matter of uploading the plugin to your blog (via an FTP client like FileZilla) and activating it (see video below). Make sure however, that you read each plugin’s included instructions carefully as some plugins require extra actions to be taken on your part for customizing it and getting it to work properly.

Below I have listed my favorite starter plugins that I believe to be must-have installs for a new WordPress blog and newbie bloggers. You may have your own that you think are more important but I have found that these make blogging for myself and newbies much easier and more worthwhile.

Akismet - Excellent tool that automatically keeps your blog from being taken over by all the spammers on the web
Feedburner Feedsmith - Integrates Feedburner service seamlessly with your blog
All-In-One SEO Pack - The premier SEO tool for WordPress blogs
WP Super Cache - Caches the content on your blog to make your website load lots faster
Homepage Excerpts - Takes your full length posts on your homepage and displays the excerpts instead. It works great for reducing content duplication and making your blog more reader friendly.
Excerpt Editor - Automatically creates excerpts for your posts with messing with ‘more’ tag
WP-DB Backup - Simply and easily backs up your database automatically according to the schedule you set
WordPress Related Posts - Displays links to other posts you’ve written according to related tags you’ve assigned each post
Google XML Sitemaps- Automatic generation of a Google XML sitemap for your blog
ShareThis - Button that lets readers email, SMS, or bookmark your posts using all the popular web services
cformsII - Customizable and flexible form builder for creating a simple contacts page or a very elaborate form with attachements
TinyMCE Advanced - Great customizable What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) editor that make it easy to edit your text and content when writing. It makes it easy to add photos and videos, create tables, and more.
Wordpress Automatic Upgrade - Permits you to upgrade plugins from your blog’s admin with one easy click
Exclude Pages - Lets you exclude pages from the navigational menu of your blog
WP PageNavi - Creates navigational page links for your blog so visitors can navigate through your post pages more readily
Subscribe to Comments - Add a simple check box at the end of the comments section to let your readers be notified of new comments via email
Popularity Contest - Features your most popular posts in your sidebar for visitors and tells you some great statistics about your most popular content from your blog’s administration panel
SEO Slugs - This automatically removes filler words in your permalink to improve SEO
WordPress Thread Comment - This enables nesting of the replies of your commenters so it is easier to follow a discussion in the comments section of your blog
AskApache Google 404 - When installed correctly on your 404 page, this automatically suggests related content to the visitor on your 404 error page and 99% of the time finds the exact post the visitor was looking for

Okay, so are there any here that you disagree with or think that I should have included in the list? What are your favorite beginner plugins that are must-haves when you start a blog?

This is a post from ToMuse: Wonderings of a Web Consumer

20 Essential Must Install WordPress Plugins For Your New Blog

5 Great Productivity Apps For Getting Things Done Using Your T-Mobile G1

Kevin — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 05:54:34 +0000

I’ve had my T-Mobile G1 for nearly a month now and I’m still totally in love with it. It seems like every time I wish it did one other thing, someone comes out with a new app that fills that need. There’s many free productivity apps available in the Android Market that can help towards getting things done but currently my favorite five are those listed below.

Voice Recorder - I’ve been waiting for this for a few weeks. It not only allows you to do simple voice recordings but it also permits you to send your recordings via email or text message. It works great for recording meetings or taking personal voice notes when a pen isn’t handy. I would love to see them take this a step further and enable it to record actual phone conversations and conference calls. Conversion from the .3GP format to a more ubiquitous format like mp3 would be nice too but it’s not totally necessary.

Dial Zero - This let’s you quickly dial the customer service numbers of over 600 companies and bypass the annoying voice prompts to speak with an actual living person. The app also lets you comment on the service provider and the effectiveness of the current phone number for a given provider. Thus if the working phone number is ever changed it can be easily updated by anyone in the Dial Zero community of users.

QSearch - Enables you to search multiple sources from this single Android app. Currently you can search Google, Google Maps, YouTube, Dictionary, and Amazon.

CountDown Alarm - Simple yet so powerful, this app does exactly what it says but does it very well. You can change the alarm sound, set it to vibrate, have it blink the LED on alarm, change LED color, and have it show a persistent status bar icon when the timer is running.

AK Notepad - A great little notepad that I frequently use to jot down an address or ideas that I have and don’t want to forget. It’s not fancy but it works perfectly. You can also send your notes to a friend via email or SMS (see how-to video below).

This is a post from ToMuse: Wonderings of a Web Consumer

5 Great Productivity Apps For Getting Things Done Using Your T-Mobile G1

MakeFive, A Digg For Your Top Five List

Kevin — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 04:04:29 +0000

MakeFive is a fairly new and addictive service that does one simple thing really well. That is, it lets you create a top five list of anything and everything on the MakeFive website and share it with your friends. The concept of MakeFive was conceived in late 2007 but with its successful implementation of video and integration with Twitter it has now began to gain a foothold and traffic is climbing.

MakeFive literally does cover everything from the Top Five Pro Wrestling Finishing Moves to the Top Five Cell Phones. And as Eric proclaims in the video below, it is indeed quite addicting. For me, it is comfortable to have a go-to list and to establish a sort of order to things and that is where MakeFive excels. For instance, you can create your own version the Top Five Cell Phones and keep it separate, but at the same time your picks/votes are counted towards the overall rankings of the Top Five Cell Phones. Thus in the end, the true favorites and most popular cell phone will win-out. It kind of reminds me of a Digg for favorite things (not news), where you can vote up/down for something by adding it to your own list and then further ranking items within your list.

The service currently permits you to gain points by creating your own list, adding photos and descriptions, ranking items, commenting, and performing other content-creation and socially-driven activities. Those points are then used to rank members accordingly but they are also used to award prizes for reoccuring monthly contests. There’s been a winner every month since last May but there’s no information on the actual prizes that have been given away. On the main Contest page the image below is displayed, suggesting that the prizes include a variety of iPods and t-shirts. An iPod Touch would especially be a great prize considering they are currently priced between $200 and $350 depending on the dedicated amount of hard drive space. The MakeFive team has already created a Facebook App to display your lists of top fives and share them easily with your friends - a smart move that should help spread MakeFive and bring it to the masses.

This is a post from ToMuse: Wonderings of a Web Consumer

MakeFive, A Digg For Your Top Five List

WP Secure Downloads Plugin, An Ecommerce Solution For Selling Digital Products

Kevin — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 12:00:47 +0000

Today we are very excited to announce the release of WP Secure Downloads, our second WordPress plugin to date. The plugin is an ecommerce solution that permits the sale of digital goods from one’s own WordPress based website or blog with the utmost ease. This is in stark contrast to most currently available digitial product sales solutions which utilize 3rd party service providers to host and sell downloadables. These service providers then charge you a commission or some type of usage fee or storage fee.

Because WP Secure Downloads is integrated with your blog, you maintain total control over your digital products and sales at all times. You are no longer constrained by the restrictions that are often imposed on sellers when using a 3rd party service provider to host their digital goods. Thus you can sell whatever and whenever you like without sharing your profits or paying any more of those extra fees (i.e. storage fees, commission fees, etc.). Some examples of digital products that could be sold from your own blog include ringtones, music, ebooks, video, themes, images, icons, logos, audio files, songs, manuals, plugins, Drupal modules, software, digital art, fonts, tips, hacks, discount coupons, promotional codes, and much more.

Not only will you be able to instantly attain greater profit margins using WP Secure Downloads, but another added benefit of selling your digital goods from your own website is the added boost in traffic. Moreover, keeping buying customers on your website not only increases page views, but it ncreases the potential for even more sales, and results in greater click through rates. There are lots more of added benefits of using this great plugin to sell your downloadable goods. For more information, and to test the plugin, visit the dedicated WP Secure Downloads plugin page.

This is a post from ToMuse: Wonderings of a Web Consumer

WP Secure Downloads Plugin, An Ecommerce Solution For Selling Digital Products

WP Widget Locationizer Plugin: Smarter Widgets, Better Ad Targeting

Kevin — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 12:08:37 +0000

I am pleased to announce the release of Widget Locationizer, our first premium WordPress plugin. This plugin solves a long standing problem in WordPress. That is, the inability to control where and when your widgets appear. For the longest time WordPress users have been stuck with all of our widgets loading for every single page, post, tag, category, and archive. Sure there were a few workarounds like creating multiple versions of a sidebar through hard coding but with the Widget Locationizer plugin it is so much easier now.

Once the plugin is installed, all you have to do is go to the widget in question and assign the posts, pages, tags, or categories for which you want it to display. The benefits that come with having such great control and flexibility of your widgets is multifaceted. For instance, because you can now match your sidebar content with that of the individual post, page, tag, or category that is loaded, this permits better ad targeting, less duplicate content, the ability to display a greater variety of content in your sidebar, and much much more.

The Widget Locationizer can also help you with your search engine optimization (SEO) by giving you the ability to assign a dofollow or nofollow status for the content within a given widget. This can be especially helpful in preventing leakage of your PageRank to advertisments or when you want to pass on PageRank to a quality link. You can find out more about the benefits of this plugin by visiting the Widget Locationizer page.

This is a post from ToMuse: Wonderings of a Web Consumer

WP Widget Locationizer Plugin: Smarter Widgets, Better Ad Targeting

TextFlow, First Parallel Word Processor, Now Available In Public Beta

Kevin — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 18:47:42 +0000

Today you can freely download and install TextFlow’s Adobe AIR based desktop application for your own document collaboration and editing needs. TextFlow’s claim to fame is that it is the world’s first parallel word processor. It’s basically a Flash-based document collaboration editor that enables you to import multiple versions of a document and quickly identify any changes and reconcile these differences into one final version. This is particularly helpful when you have multiple editors reviewing a single document in which they have made their own changes and there is now multiple versions.

To use TextFlow you simply drag and drop Word documents on to the application where they will be automatically imported and any discrepancies between documents will be identified. From there you can simply approve or reject the individual changes or suggestions and they are automatically implemented or denied, respectively.

Sharing and inviting others to edit your TextFlow document is made simple by sending them a private URL invite. After clicking on the invitation link, the user will be directed to TextFlow where the document editor will load the document and it will be made available to edit. I have embedded a tutorial video below to see TextFlow in action for yourself. It is actually quite remarkable to me that the creators of TextFlow were able to accomplish so much with so little (~$15k in funding).

This is a post from ToMuse: Wonderings of a Web Consumer

TextFlow, First Parallel Word Processor, Now Available In Public Beta

Best Wireless Broadband Internet Service Plans Compared

Kevin — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 08:12:36 +0000

With more 3G networks established now, the higher wireless speeds and lower costs have made wireless broadband much more attractive and affordable. I’m currently using Sprint’s wireless broadband and I have been quite happy with its great coverage and ability to obtain download speeds of 1 to 2 Mbps. While my cable connection at home operates quite a bit faster (between 3-8 Mbps) I’ve considered going totally wireless and dropping the $50 per month service. Thus, I’ve decided to research the wireless broadband service providers to evaluate and compare them more closely. All the data included in this article was taken direclty from the service providers’ websites.

Verizon’s wireless broadband service is $59.99 per month with a $35 one-time activation fee. The least inexpensive data card will cost you only $29. The service plan is limited to 5 GB per month with the over limit fee set at $0.25 per MB. Users can expect download speed from 0.600 Mbps to 1.4 Mbps and upload speeds from 500Kbps to 800 Kbps.

Sprint’s wireless data plan is set at $59.99 per month with no activation fee. You can get a free mobile broadband card with a new 2-year contract. The data plan’s limit is set at 5 GB with an overuse fee of $0.05 per MB.

AT&T’s wireless broadband service will set you back $60 per month with no activation fee incurred. You can obtain a free mobile data card by signing up for a new 2-year contract. AT&T’s data plan includes a 5 GB limit.

T-Mobile offers wireless internet for $49.99 per month with unlimited data transfer and no activation fee. Currently the only broadband card available on their website is $149.99.

Cricket’s wireless broadband service plan cost $40 per month and includes unlimited internet access. There is a one-time activation fee of $25 and the cheapest broadband USB modem is $59.

Alltel offers wireless broadband for $59.99 per month and a free wireless data card if you sign-up for a new 2-yr contract. Alltel wireless broadband customers should expect download speeds up to 3.1 Mbps.

Below you will find the comparison chart for the providers discussed above. The service providers were compared according to price, activation fee, cheapest modem or data card available, the data limit for the wireless service plan, cost per MB of over usage, download speeds, and upload speeds. Keep in mind that wireless connection speeds vary according to your location and a carrier’s coverage is limited. So make sure you check the available coverage in your area before signing up. Unfortunately, not every bit of comparative information was found on a provider’s website (e.g. upload/download speeds). We have every intention of providing this information when it becomes available and if you have some insight for the data cells currently filled with a ?, please add your comment below to let us know what those are.

This is a post from ToMuse: Wonderings of a Web Consumer

Best Wireless Broadband Internet Service Plans Compared

Dial2Do, Reqall Are Free Speech To Text, Voice Recognition Alternatives To Jott

Kevin — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 05:16:08 +0000

Jott is one heck of a great GTD service but a little while ago they moved from being totally free to pay only. While I definitely think that it is worth it to pay the nominal fee to access Jott, if you’re looking for a free alternative, Dial2Do and Reqall may very well fit the bill for you. I’ve assessed the feature list for each provider and included a video to become acquainted with each of the speech to text providers. At the end of this article I’ve embedded a comparison chart that displays some of the key differences between these three voice recognition platforms.

Feature List For Jott:

Notes
Reminders
Emails
Lists
Text messaging
Group messaging
Calendar integration: Google Calendar, 30 Boxes
3rd party integrated services
RSS feed integration
iPhone app
Blackberry app
Outlook app
iGoogle Gadget
Blog integration

Feature List For Reqall:

Notes
Reminders
Emails
Lists
Text messaging
Instant messaging: AIM, Yahoo Instant Messenger, GoogleTalk and Jabber
Calendar Integration: Google Calendar, Apple’s iCal, Outlook 2007, Mozilla’s Sunbird
RSS feed integration
iPhone app
Blackberry app
Photographic memory storage via Picasa web albums

Feature List For Dial2Do:

Notes
Reminders
Email
Text messaging
Calendar integration: Google Calendar, 30 Boxes
RSS feed integration
3rd party integrated services
Blog integration

As you can see the chart below, Reqall and Dial2Do offer a lot of great features that rival that of Jott’s that can help you stay organized towards actually getting things done. In addition, Reqall provides instant messaging integration and a new feature described as a photographic memory storage (via Picasa web albums). Dial2Do is a solid competitor but it is lacking some of the frills that Jott and Reqall offer (e.g. apps for Outlook, iPhone, Blackberry). One feature not offered by Reqall or Dial2Do that I believe is worth the price for Jott is the group messaging ability. This is particularly indispensable for large organizations that require frequent communication and coordinated efforts of team members. If that’s not a core requirement for your specific needs however, I’m sure you’ll agree that Reqall and Dial2Do are both excellent free productivity enhancement alternatives.

Feature Set Comparison Chart

This is a post from ToMuse: Wonderings of a Web Consumer

Dial2Do, Reqall Are Free Speech To Text, Voice Recognition Alternatives To Jott

Logo Design Companies Reviewed And Compared

Kevin — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 06:56:39 +0000

Lately I’ve been seriously considering a professional logo for my own website. With so many online professional logo designers to choose from however, the decision has become quite difficult. Since I am going to be researching these already I thought that it only makes sense to share my findings with everyone. If you have used any of these logo design companies in the past please leave a comment to let us know if you had a good experience with them.

Within the companies listed below some offer free logo designs or DIY (do it yourself) logo creation tools that can help you keep your overall cost down. But unless you are a designer yourself you’ll probably be better off just hiring a professional. After all, your logo should be a shining representation of what your company is about and if your logo doesn’t shine, what does that say about your company? Some logo design companies also provide branding of your logo on promotional items, products, stationary, letterheads, business cards, shirts as well as provide other services like website design and web banner creation. If a logo designer indeed offers such additional products and services, they are frequently bundled into different packages/plans and you can usually save you lots of money in the long run for your company, especially if you’re in the startup phase of development.

I’ve created a comparison spreadsheet that reviews all the pertinent information of each online logo provider. This includes do it yourself (DIY) providers, custom made professional logo providers, pricing, support, days until delivery (turnaround), and whether or not they provide other services such as website design, banners, promotional products, stationary, and brochures. Most of logo providers also offer discounts on professionally printed business cards as part of their sales packages. I’ve coded the logo plans to indicate the number of designers, number of design concepts, and the number of revisions. For instance if a logo company’s Plan 1 is 1-2-3, that means that for that plan you would get 1 designer assigned to create two concepts of a logo for you and that you would get up to three revisions for your logo.

See the LARGER VIEW OF THIS CHART

Domain Appraisal Resources: What Is Your Website or Blog Worth?

This is a post from ToMuse: Wonderings of a Web Consumer

Logo Design Companies Reviewed And Compared

Etherpad Offers Real Time Text, Document Collaboration Tools

Kevin — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 05:51:02 +0000

Today I discovered a new online document editor called EtherPad that has successfully solved the long standing problem of how to allow multiple people to edit a document at once and while being able to actually see the editing occur in real time. Until now the closest attempt at this goal with Google Docs which could display multi-user changes approximately every 10-15 seconds.

Etherpad acts, and currently looks, much like a wiki. As a user types in his/her text, their work is color-coded to easily differentiate one’s own text from another team member’s. Beyond collaborative text editing, the users can chat with one another in the sidebar as they continue to work on their project. Inviting others to join in the collaborative effort is easily done through email and private URL invitations. Etherpad permits you to create new workspaces, which gives it more of an online project management feel than traditional online document management applications.

I tested Etherpad myself and it works great. However, I ended up basically just chatting with the other user like it was an IRC room. I can’t really see people using it to write research papers or other similar writing intensive projects but I’m sure there are other instances in which it would be the perfect solution. Perhaps it would be a good fit for programmers that are collaboratively writing code or in the case of a conference call where you could ensure that both parties are privy to each other’s overall message by seeing both sets of notes in real time. I wonder if it could also fill a need in the class room to promote more interaction and participation? Regardless of who its target user is, Etherpad has created a great service that is easy and fun to use. You can see Etherpad in action via their screencast video or you can test it firsthand without registering.

This is a post from ToMuse: Wonderings of a Web Consumer

Etherpad Offers Real Time Text, Document Collaboration Tools

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