Tags are often a misunderstood element of WordPress. Many people for some reason use tags and categories interchangeably, which dilutes the point of either function.

The way I like to explain the relation of tags and categories to your blog is that of a book with chapters and an index. Categories are the chapters to a book and tags are the index to the same book. Categories should focus on high level segregation; whereas, tags are more on the granular bases with your information division.

A little while ago my friend, Reina, asked about my thoughts concerning the recent change in the FTC advertising guidelines. I have a strong opinion on why I feel the FTC is meddling with bloggers (and other web entities). Below is my answer to her question. It may come across a bit as conspiracy theory, but I don’t believe I am wrong (I guess conspiracy theorists usually believe they are right).

REINA: So today is slow at work so I was going back through all my emails at work and found an article about changes in FTC guides regarding web endorsements. I’m curious if you’ve heard about this, if so, what your thoughts are on it, and also how it has affected blogging and advertising. Have you noticed a difference? Is this sort of thing enforceable or will it be online business as usual? The article made me think of you. Just curious what your thoughts are. Here’s the article.

It might be a little strong of language to refer to Matt as a god, but he truly is amazing with what he has done with wordpress. I actually meet Matt last year at a WordCamp in Utah. The event was really good and it was also nice to rub shoulders with Matt. He really is a down to earth bloke who loves what he does. Not to mention he has a stellar piece of software.

Any one who knows me, knows that I am a wordpress geek. Plugin, themes, blogs, anything wordpress I study and analyze just about anything I can, and I do it just about every day. Pathetic…possibly, but a good career as well. Anyway, I found the below interview of Matt on WordPressOfTheDay.com and thought I would share it. I really like the cinematography done by SpeakingEvents.com (the company interviewing Matt), and I feel it gives a good insight to what wordpress really is all about. I particularly like the part that he talks about why wordpress is free. You can almost see pain in eyes as he talks about putting ads on wordpress (he is talking about wordpress.com). It’s funny and inspiring all at the same time.

identy-theft I still have several blogs that are on WordPress 2.6.1. Recently, I received the following notification from my host:

“Please note that versions of WordPress older than 2.6.5 have known vulnerabilities and can be potentially exploited to deface your website (or any under the same user account), send spam, run phishing scams, or similarly detrimental (and possibly illegal) activity.”

“The current version of WordPress (available at wordpress.org or via DreamHost’s One-Click feature) is 2.7. It is important that you update WordPress as soon as possible to secure your sites. If these are old or unused copies of WordPress, please remove them from the server or move them out of the active domain directory.”

spam When I first started blogging my friend Janet helped setup my blog. One thing she did for me was to create my wordpress comment blacklist. I really appreciated this, because it is never fun to have to write all the filthy words that you can think of. However, over the years, I had to add to her list and create more words that she didn’t think of. I also added spam websites that were found on other comment blacklists.

All this effort has given me a list of 300+ words and sites that don’t ever make it to my blog. I thought I would pass on Janet’s kindness and offer you my list to download. One thing to know about WordPress’s Comment Blacklist is that it will match your blacklisted words inside other words. So, if you put “sex” on the list it will also block “sexy.” Since, I never want to discourage my readers in expressing how sexy they find my writing I don’t add that word to my black list =).

If you have any words to add to the list let me know. Happy spam fighting. ~Paul

Today I was asked to provide a quick tutorial on how to incorporate SEO Copywriting into a blog post. It’s amazing the journey I have traveled just in the last year on this subject. A year ago, I would have heavily emphasized on keyword density, LSI, and pyramid writing. Now, I am a firm believer that SEO Copywriting follows more the traditional route of good writing. If you have a solid article that is centered on a couple of your keywords you will be fine. However, there are a couple more tips that will help you do better in the search engines. There are definitely more than just these seven, but these tips are the top ones on my list. Hope they help. ~Paul W.

7 SEO Writing Tips

1. Post Title: Just like your Page Title Tag your Post Title is very important. Have your title compelling but be sure to add your the keyword you are focusing on into the title. If your theme is optimized correctly with H1 and H2 tags than you will see these posts pick up traffic in the search engines quicker. Interesting note, I have found that the closer I have my keyword to the beginning of the title the better I do in the search engines.
2. Post Permalink: Underneath the post title is where you can edit the actual URL of the post, also know as the permalink. I personally edit the url to only have the keyword I am focusing on. This technique works really well in Yahoo. With Yahoo exact keyword matches still help you move up in the rankings (I’ve seen people snag top 10 rankings doing this method). So, if your keyword is “Physician Jobs,” and your title is “Physician Jobs – The Truth Behind The Stethoscope!” you would want your url to be: http://blogname.com/physician-jobs. Important Note: Be sure that your overall blog permalink settings are correct. Go to Settings—>Permalinks and select any of the settings that show “sample post” in the example. I personally use the custom setting and just put in /%postname%/, but having the date or month before this setting is just fine.
3. Content: Within your content you want to sprinkle the keywords you are focusing on throughout the text. There really is no magic number to how often you should use the keyword. A good rule thumb is to have the keyword in every paragraph. If that is not possible, don’t sweat it. However, do try to have the keyword at least four to five times in a 500 word post (roughly one keyword per 100 words).
4. Anchored Text: The visible, hyperlinked text on a web page is considered anchored text. It’s often underlined and/or a different color than the rest of the copy. It’s important to have your keyword at least once as an anchored text in your post. It doesn’t hurt to have multiple anchored texts of the same keyword. However, make sure that the anchored text doesn’t point to the same web page.
5. Tags: Tags refer to micro-categories for the blog. This is a great place to add misspellings and other variations of the keyword. I personally haven’t dived into tagging but I have friends who have seen great success making sure they tag every post (learn more about my beliefs on tags).
6. Categories: I mainly use the categories for focusing on the overall keywords of the blog. Categories offer the search bots a plethora of keyword rich content centered around specific categories. You can always add categories that are not focused around your keywords but always be sure to add your post to at least one keyword category.
7. Page Title & Post Description : I am a big fan of the HeadSpace plugin. Once you install this plugin you find under the visual editor in each of your posts a field called HeadSpace, which has a page title and description. The Page Title should just have your keyword; whereas, I use the Description by copying two two sentences from my post (that have my keyword) and inserting in. These are incredibly important since this is what you will find in the search engines. Note: A lot of other bloggers use the All In One SEO plugin. This will work as well. I just started with HeadSpace and have never had reason to leave.

Related Posts:

• How To Keep Your Blog Alive
• The gFTC (Google Federal Trade Commission)
• The Gift of My Comment Blacklist
• How I Make Money Blogging
• Where My Blogging is Going

Having a license plate with BLOGGER on it I get stopped a lot and asked questions about blogging. The number one question I get is, “Can someone really make money off of blogging?” This question is always followed up with, “How can I make money off blogging?”

Often people do not like my response. Mainly because I dispel any belief of someone starting right away making thousands of dollars a month. The blogosphere is full of stories of well known bloggers who took years to make the money they are currently making. It is a rare, rare example of a blogger who in month one made several thousands of dollars (regardless of what some hyped-up ebooks may tell you).

If my tales of blogging hardship hasn’t discouraged my listener than I proceed to share what I have learned.

Advertising Works…Sometimes
First, advertising can make you money. Darren over at Problogger and Jeremy at Shoemoney are proof of this. However, the likelihood of becoming an A++ blogger is rather unlikely. I’ve experimented with advertising but haven’t really taken to it. Not to say one shouldn’t, and maybe someday I will go down that path. For now, though, I prefer the clean, concise look of a non-ad-littered website

The Community Is Key
The number one resource in bringing me consistent revenue has been the community around my blog. My readers have introduced me to more opportunities and consulting jobs than anything else. In fact, it was due to a reader that made it possible for me to leave my corporate job.

Community Building Is Not Easy
Which conveniently takes me to my next point–you don’t build a community overnight. When I first started blogging I had no readers what-so-ever. This being the case, I had to work at Oracle during the day and blogged at night for almost a year. A community is a fickle thing. If you don’t continually work it won’t grow, and if you stop building it will die. I am reminded of a millionaire I once spoke to. He told me, “If a business isn’t growing it’s dying.” Your blog is no different. Many web snakes will tell you that you can put a blog on automatic and you will make lots of money. I am here to tell you this is rarely true, particularly since I have tried to do just that with another blog. Both my business partner and I have learned the hard way that blogs take nurturing and time.