Because of the site slowdowns I started looking around for some solutions to my problem – including finding a way to stop the spam request before they even started.

Today’s post will look at a variety of solutions that I’ve examined – and a few that I’ve used – in order to get rid of spam comments on my WordPress sites.

WordPress Plugins To Combat Spam

The first and easiest way that you can combat spam comments and trackbacks on your blog is to install spam nuking plugins.  Here’s a list of a few that I’ve found and had recommended to me.

• Akismet:  While I’ve had issues with Akismet having false positives on a quite a few comments (in other words, good comments being classified as spam), for the most part it does a pretty decent job of catching the spam and sending it to the spam box.
• Growmap Anti Spambot Plugin: I use Growmap in conjunction with Akismet to drastically cut down on the amount of spam I receive.  The way this plugin works is that it puts in a checkbox below the comment box, asking the user to check it in order to comment.  Most spam-bots will not complete that behavior, and therefore can’t comment.  After installing this it cut down on my spam substantially.
• Spam Free WordPress:  I have a blogging colleague who uses this plugin and swears by it.  It claims to block 100% of automated spam. I’m not sure about that, but some people like it.
• Conditional Captcha:  The plugin creates a captcha that the user needs to enter in order to comment.  Blocks most spam, although it may still allow some comments into the database before being deleted – which means there still may be some load on your server.  I have avoided captcha to some extent because I don’t like entering them on other sites myself.
• NoSpamX:  Another friend uses this plugin and says it has basically dropped the number of spam to zero on his blog.  Blocks automated spam-bots and allows blacklists.
• Quiz: This plugin quizzes commenters before they can complete the comment.  I don’t use this one either because i prefer to keep it as simple as possible for commenters.

I currently only use two of the plugins from the list above – Akismet and Growmap.   The rest are still decent plugins I’ve had recommended to me by satisfied bloggers.

Alternative Commenting Systems

Quite a few frustrated bloggers are moving away from the standard WordPress comments system and switching to an alternative commenting platform.  Here are a few choices that I’ve seen used:

• LiveFyre
• IntenseDebate
• Disqus

These other commenting systems do have their own pros and cons that should be researched if you plan on using them, but for the most part they are pretty effective at combating spam.

 Denying Access To Spammers By Blocking Them With Your .htaccess File

While most the plugins that I use from the above list did help in blocking a lot of the spam that was coming through, I was still experiencing issues with spam-bots hitting my server constantly, and causing slowdowns on my site. In other words their spam comments weren’t getting through, but they were still hitting my server and causing severe loads on my server.  A spam comment and a real comment will have the same load on your server essentially.   At times the spam hitting my server was so bad that it would cause my site to go down altogether.

After doing some research I found the solution to my problem on the WordPress.org site on a post called “Combating Comment Spam/Denying Access“.  The article goes over a variety of ways that you can programatically block spammers from your site.

Block Spammers IP Addresses

First, they go over how to deny access to spammers by blocking their IP addresses from accessing your site.  It can be effective except for the fact that spammers are often on changing IP addresses.  Doesn’t hurt to try and block the worst offenders though, or certain countries if they are especially known for spammers.

Add this to your .htaccess to block spammers from certain IP addresses, or IP ranges.

Order allow,deny
Deny from 123.123.123.123
Deny from 156.156.156.*
Deny from 189.189.*.*
Allow from all

For more help on setting this up, see this post.

Deny Referrer Or Trackback Spam

Another thing that spammers will exploit is your trackbacks on your site.  Most bloggers will recognize trackbacks at the bottom of a post where links to that particular post will show up.  They show readers who has linked to your post, along with a link to the referrer’s site.

Spammers will send out bots to send fake trackbacks with links back to their spammy sites. You can set your .htaccess file to block known trackback spam bots.   To just get rid of those problems altogether I removed trackbacks from my main sites completely.

Deny Access to No Referrer Requests

This is the one that fixed my spam problem on my site in dramatic fashion.  Before I instituted this fix in my .htaccess file my site was going down a couple of times every day because of the major loads spam-bots were putting on my server.  Since the fix was made it rarely ever has problems anymore because of spam-bots.

What this fix does is to find illegitimate comments by determining if a comment has gone through a certain .php page.   When your readers comment for example,  the wp-comments-post.php file is accessed, processes the text, and creates the comment. The user’s browser will send a “referral” line about this.

When a spam-bot comes in, it hits the file directly and usually does not leave a referrer.  This means that we can detect those no-referrer posts and block them using the .htaccess file.  If you’re not familiar with .htaccess files or Apache directives, you may want to get some help on  this.  Add this to your .htaccess file.

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD} POST
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} .wp-comments-post\.php*
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !.*yourdomain.com.* [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^$
RewriteRule (.*) http://%{REMOTE_ADDR}/$ [R=301,L]

NOTE: In the fourth line of the code above, make sure to change yourdomain.com to your own domain name, without the www, or any prefix on the front.

What this code in your .htaccess file does is deflect the spam-bot back on itself so it never hits your server.

The code detects when a post is being made, checks if the comment is being made on “wp-comments-post.php” with a referrer of your domain.  If there is no referrer it sends the spam-bot back to the originating server’s (the spam-bot’s) IP address.

For more detailed instructions on how to set this up in your own .htaccess file, head on over to the post at WordPress.org.

Conclusion

Spam is a troubling issue for bloggers. It can devalue your site, slow down your server and even bring it crashing down because of the resources it demands.  The good news is, there are solutions.

For me the solution was a combination of  a couple of WordPress plugins, as well some code in my .htaccess file.  The code in my .htaccess file was especially helpful because it stopped the spammers in their tracks, before they could even get to my server to start their nasty business.

My suggestion is to try something similar.  Install one or two plugins, and put the .htaccess rules in place. My experience has shown that this should be enough to allow you to live a spam free existence. Good luck!

Have your own trick, tips or plugins to help combat spam comments and trackbacks on your blog?  Tell us about them in the comments!

The post How To Block Spam On Your WordPress Site Before It Becomes A Major Issue appeared first on Blueprint For How To Make Money With A Blog.

They blog for a few months, and try to monetize their sites with a few Adsense and text link ads. But after 4 or 5 months and minimal return for their efforts they quickly flame out and disappear into the ether from whence they came.

So what happened, and why aren’t most successful?  Much of the time, they just weren’t patient enough!

Key For A Blogger: Have Patience

I’ve found that one of the key attributes for many successful bloggers that I’ve met is patience.  They stuck with their blogs even when they weren’t making a ton of money at the start. They created a nice looking site and published high quality content several days a week on a regular basis – week in and week out.  They stuck with it through the thin early months, and even when they weren’t making even minimum wage for their time spent at the start – they stuck with it.   They had patience and dedication to create a go-to resource that would help others.

When talking to a lot of my blogging colleagues it seems that there is a very real 6 month flame out period that a lot of newer bloggers encounter.  They stick with it up until that point but then just get sick of it, or don’t feel like they’re making progress, so they quit.  If they had just stuck with it a bit longer, however, many could have turned their blogs into a real asset!

Many successful bloggers, myself included, didn’t start making any real money until somewhere in the range of 6 months to a year – sometimes longer.   I remember talking to another blogger when I first started out, and he told me how he had made $1600 the previous month from his blog. I couldn’t believe it, I could make my mortgage payment with extra money like that!

While I wasn’t making money like that at the time, I stuck with it for 6 months, then 12, and now 4.5 years.   Most months I’m now making 3-4 times the number I was in awe of back then. Why? Because I stuck with it, had patience and did my best to educate myself on how to make money online.

How To Avoid Flaming Out When Your Patience Is Thin

So what are some things you can do to avoid flaming out before your site starts to gain traction?  Here are some ideas for things that worked for me.

• Treat your blog like a business, not a hobby: I’m convinced that one reason I’ve done well with my site is that I’ve treated it like a money making venture from the start.  I posted on my site 4-5 days/week every week.  I treated it like a second job, and wrote even when I didn’t want to.  I tracked my expenses and income and was motivated when after a few months the income started to creep up.
• Keep things fresh:  Brainstorm ideas to write about, keep a notebook handy and jot down ideas as they come. Be creative and come up with blog series around a certain topic.  Use an editorial calendar to schedule post ideas.
• Write in spurts: I will sometimes set aside time on a Saturday or some other night when I’m free and just write several posts all at once for the coming week. That way I’m not as burned out by constantly writing every day.
• Accept guest posts or hire freelance writers: If you are burned out on writing consider accepting guest posts from other bloggers, or hiring a freelance writer to write for your site.
• If you need to, take a break:  If you are really getting burned out, don’t be afraid to stop posting for a day or two, or even a week.  Get refreshed and start up again when you’re ready!
• Don’t give up!: Even if you feel like giving in, don’t do it. Stick with it, be patient!

Slow And Steady Wins The Race

While it would be nice for everyone to be able to start a blog and right away make thousands of dollars a month, the reality is that it usually isn’t that easy.  I can take months or years of hard work before it begins to pay off.  Just stick with it when the going gets tough, and a few months or a year down the line you’ll be glad you did!

The post Tip For New Bloggers: Be Patient! appeared first on Blueprint For How To Make Money With A Blog.

The problem is setting up regular backups to run isn’t always an easy process, especially if you’re not very tech-oriented.  A lot of the plugins that are supposed to make backing up easy either don’t work very well, don’t work at all, or take a masters degree in computer science to figure out how to setup correctly.

I had been using a backup plugin for the last 3-4 years that worked OK, but it had problems from time to time. There were times that it would just stop firing and backups would stop happening.  I had the backups being emailed to my Gmail account as well, and sometimes they would just stop sending when the file size was too large.   That backup solution also only backed up the database, the site files I had to manually back up on a regular basis, and since it was a manual process it tended not to happen as often as it should.

A Better Backup Solution

A few weeks ago I was talking to a blogging colleague, Tom over at CanadianFinanceBlog.com, and I asked him what he was using to backup his sites.   Since he runs multiple sites his backup solution has to work well, or else he’d be in trouble.  He told me he was using Backup Buddy from PluginBuddy.com as his main backup plugin.  It’ s a premium plugin, but there’s a reason it costs money. It works, and it works well.

On Tom’s advice I went ahead and bought a developer’s version of the plugin since I needed multiple licenses for all of my sites, and installed the plugin that same day on 11 sites.  I’m glad I bought the plugin because it has made the backup process so much easier and pain free than it was before.  Let’s look at some of the things it lets you do.

Database Backup

The main reason I’m using Backup Buddy is because it makes it simple and easy to do regular backups of your site. How easy?  After setting up your backup locations in initial setup, all you need to do to backup is hit a button to backup the database, or another one to do a full backup of the entire site.

Full Site Backup

Doing a full site backup was tough for me to do previously because some of my sites have large databases, and tons of content to backup.  They were just too large and other plugins were choking when scheduled backups happen.  Backup Buddy had no problems with it and actually completed a backup pretty quickly.  It can store a backup locally in the WordPress, or remotely archive your files.

Scheduled Backups

One key thing to have with a backup plugin is scheduled backups.  With Backup Buddy you can schedule backups for your whole site, or for database only.  I schedule regular nightly database backups, and then a weekly full site backup.  You can set the backups to happen at whatever interval you want it to be at, daily, monthly, twice a month, hourly, whatever.

You can also set how many backups you want the plugin to save so that you don’t run out of space.

Off-Site Backups To DropBox, Amazon S3, Email

Another great feature of the plugin is that it will allow you to backup remotely with your Amazon S3 account, Dropbox, an FTP site of your choice or by sending a backup to an email address.

I’ve used it with my Amazon S3 account that I was already using for my CDN, and it has so far worked seamlessly.  You just enter your login credentials, where to back it up at the service and set it as a backup location. Then when you’re setting up a scheduled or manual backup, you can choose that remote location as the backup location.

I’ve also got email backups setup to send to my Gmail account where I archive backups for a certain time.

You can check your dashboard to make sure the updates went through.

Migrate  Or Restore Your Site

Another great feature of the plugin is that it will allow you to migrate your site to another server, or if you’ve had problems with your site, restore it to the same server.  Restoring from a backup is a super simple process.  All you have to do is grab their import php file, put it in the same directory as your full site backup, and then browse the url of the import file, and it will walk you through restoring the site.  Simple!

I know of others who have used this plugin when buying sites from other people. They install the plugin on the remote server, do a backup, and then restore/migrate the site to their own server.

Malware Scan

Finally the plugin does a malware scan of your site for you using Sucuri Security.  You just go to the malware scan link, and it  will scan your site for malware, tell you if your site is blacklisted. Very helpful, especially if you think your site may have been compromised.  And if it is compromised?  Just go to one of your previous sitebackups to clean things up!  Piece of cake!

Conclusion

I think Backup Buddy is one of my new favorite plugins for WordPress users, I’m not sure what I did without it!  It gives you a simple and easy to use backup and site restoration solution that most likely save you if you ever have your site hacked, files corrupted or otherwise lose your site files.  It’s well worth the small cost.  I’d highly recommend it to anyone who wants to ensure the safety of their site files and database data.

The post Backup Buddy Review: Backing Up Your WordPress Site Is Easy And Automatic With Backup Buddy appeared first on Blueprint For How To Make Money With A Blog.

I’ll be the first to admit that some of my sites are currently a bit too slow on the load time, and it’s something that needs to be addressed, especially given the fact that Google now seems to be using your page’s speed as one factor  in determining search rankings.  It’s not just search rankings, however, a slow loading site will frustrate your users and give your site a higher bounce rate, lower conversions and less income.

Ok, so we know that site speed is an important factor that needs to be looked at.   There are a variety of browser plugins and sites that will help you to determine how fast your pages are loading, but now Google has released a new tool that can be used to help diagnosing problem pages, the effects slow page loads can have on traffic and conversions, and more.  Where will you find the tool?  In Google Analytics.

Google Analytics Site Speed Reports

The new version of Google Analytics now has a section of reporting for “site speed”.   You can find it under the “Content” menu item, labeled “Site Speed” (see below).  Some of the things you can track in this reporting according to Google:

• Content—which landing pages are slowest?
• Traffic sources—which campaigns correspond to faster page loads overall?
• Visitor—how does latency compare by visitor type or geographic region?
• Technology—does browser, operating system or screen resolution impact latency metrics?

Setting Up Site Speed In Analytics

One thing that should be noted.  Site speed reporting doesn’t work automatically out of the box.  You will need to make a small change to your Analytics Javascript that you’ve got running on your site’s pages.  Essentially you’ll be adding one line to your Analytics code.  Example that Google gives:

<script type="text/javascript">
 var _gaq = _gaq || [];
 _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-XXXXX-X']);
 _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);
 _gaq.push(['_trackPageLoadTime']);

 (function() {
   var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true;
   ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js';
   var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s);
 })();
</script>

Once you add that extra line, Analytics should start tracking page load times, and it will be available to you in custom reports builder as well so that you can run it  against a variety of different segments. Let the fun begin!

If you’re using the traditional Analytics code (as opposed to the newer Asynchronous code above), your changes will look slightly different. You can find the complete setup guide here: Setting Up Site Speed

Site Speed Is More Important Than Ever

Site speed is becoming more and more important as Google changes their algorithms, and stresses it’s importance.  They’ve added page load times to their webmaster tools, as well as adding new tools to Analytics, creating browser plugins/etc.  Everything they’re doing right now is encouraging webmasters to improve load times… or else.

If you want your site to stay near the top of the search rankings, you’d be well advised to start seeing what you can do to improve your page load times as well.

The post How To Enable Google Site Speed Report In The New Google Analytics appeared first on Blueprint For How To Make Money With A Blog.

When I started my first personal finance site in January of 2008 I had an inkling that it might be possible to make money from blogging because I was reading posts from other bloggers talking about how they were making enough to pay their mortgage, or fund a vacation. I figured I would give it a shot as well.

At the time I didn’t have much of an idea about how people make money from blogs, except maybe that they were adding Google Adsense to their sites. So I figured I would start there, with Adsense.

My site’s first day I made a grand total of $0.00 from Adsense (see below). Day two I made $0.01.  It kept improving to the point where Adsense now does in fact pay my mortgage, and quite a bit more!   (See the graphic below for the gradual increase in income over time.)

So today I want to look at some of the best sources of revenue that I’ve found for a blog, beyond just the easy start of Adsense.

How To Make An Income With Your Blog

There are a ton of different ways to make money with a blog, you’re only really limited by your creativity.  But with that said, there are several main categories of income sources.  I’ll go over several of them. The first – pay per click ad networks.

PPC Ad Networks (Pay Per Click)

Pay per click ad networks are companies that pay you when people click on the ads on your site. The most prominent example of a PPC ad network is Google Adsense.  Some PPC networks pay better than others, and depending on what your topic is, the money you get per click could be anywhere from 1 penny to $14 or $15 dollars.

• Google Adsense:  By far my biggest income generator for my sites.   While Adsense doesn’t work great for all types of sites, it truly is one of the easiest and best ways to make income for a site right off the bat.  Even if you’re only making a few dollars every month, it is probably enough to pay for your hosting, domain name and other things.
• Bidvertiser
• Propeller Ads
• Revenu Hits

CPM Banner Advertising (Cost Per Thousand)

Another great way to make money based on your traffic alone is through CPM ad networks.   CPM networks are a lot like PPC networks, except in the fact that they don’t pay you for clicks, but instead pay you each time their ad is served. CPM stands for “cost per thousand” impressions and is the standard way that CPM networks figure out how much they will pay.

Most second tier CPM networks are going to pay in the range of a few pennies up to $1.50 or so per thousand ads served.  The goal, however, is to build your traffic to the point where you can sign on with a premium ad network in your niche that pays much more.  For example, I use one now that pays closer to $8-10 CPMs.

• Media.net
• Conversant
• Tribal Fusion
• Investing Channel (niche network)
  

Affiliate And Referral Networks (Pay Per Action Ads)

Companies are more than willing to pay you if you can get someone to purchase their product. They’ll either do a referral program through an affiliate network, or sometimes they’ll have their own in house referral program.  This is my third largest source of income.  Here are a few of my favorites.

• Commission Junction
• Flexoffers.com
• Linkshare.com
  
• Amazon Associates
• Share A Sale

Create Your Own Product

Creating your own product, like the ebook I sell on this site, is a great way to make extra income.    Here are some  ideas for things you can sell.

• Ebook
• Online course
  
• A service
  
• Membership sites
• Premium content
• Crafts or other homemade products

Referral And GPT Sites

You can also make money by referring people to different sites where people can make money by shopping, filling out surveys, signing up for trial offers and more.   Here are a few of the ones that have done the best for me.

• Cash Crate
• Ebates
• Swagbucks

Text Link Ads

I no longer sell text link ads on any of my sites because I know that Google doesn’t like them, and I don’t want to anger the big G.   After selling them I had one site drop from a page rank 5 to a page rank of 3,  and search traffic slowed as well.  At that point I stopped selling them on all my sites.  If you want to take the risk, however, there is some decent money to be made selling text links.  At my biggest point on that other site I was making about $1000/month from text links alone.  For many of these text links, once you reach a certain page rank, you’ll start getting emails from companies that are offering to buy the links.  My advice, don’t allow them to lowball you, your site’s link juice is worth more than you think. Be willing to turn the scammers down as well.

• Private Link Brokers: will contact you directly.

Conclusion

The list above of ways to make money is only the beginning. There are a plethora of other ways to make money with your blog, some of which work well for some blogs, but not for others.  In the end, you’re only limited by your creativity!  So get on out there and start making some extra income!

Do you have any ways of making money that you’d like to share with other readers?  Tell us about it in the comments!

The post How I Make Money From Blogging: My Top Income Sources appeared first on Blueprint For How To Make Money With A Blog.

Because the database can become cluttered and inefficient, it’s important to make sure that every once in a while you do a little bit of database cleanup. You want everything to be running in tip top shape, right?

WordPress Database Optimization And Cleanup Plug-ins

Here are a few database optimization and management plugins that I’ve used over the last couple years to help make these maintenance tasks easier.

• WP-DBManager – See  all your tables, optimize, repair, perform backups, and more.  Great tool for your database.
• WP-phpMyAdmin – Access phpMyAdmin from your dashboard. If you aren’t skilled with more advanced SQL code, skip this one.
• Plugins Garbage Collector – Helps you identify database tables you are no longer using, or that were made by plugins that have since been deactivated or deleted. It identifies all DB tables that aren’t part of the core WP files, then uses a color code to let you know if the table belongs to an active, disabled, or deleted plugin. You should be able to find a few DB tables you can safely drop the data from, or flat out delete.
• Delete Revision –  By default WordPress saves revisions of your posts, so in the end you could end up having multiple revisions of the same post.   This plugin will allow you to delete un-needed revisions of your posts to clear up database space. I just ran it on one of my sites and freed up an entire 1 mb of space. Only problem is the plugin author uses broken english, so be careful.
• Optimize Database –  Over time your database becomes cluttered, and it needs to be optimized. Think of it like defragging your hard drive.  This plugin defrags your database.
• Broken Link Checker – While this isn’t completely related to the database and optimization, finding broken links and removing or updating them could be considered a cleanup activity.

Some of the tools above will perform the same or similar tasks, so find out which ones you like best, and use them for your WordPress database maintenance tool.

What tools do you use to maintain your WordPress database?  Tell us in the comments!

The post Cleaning Up Your WordPress Database: Optimizing, Deleting And Backing Up appeared first on Blueprint For How To Make Money With A Blog.

Choosing A Name For Your Site

There are two main types of names for a blog.

1. Brandable name: A brandable name is about creating a name for your blog that is memorable, and that can be used to help build an identity for your site. Examples of brandable names include sites like Boing Boing, DoshDosh and Dooce.com.   Note: Brandable names can also be keyword rich depending upon the name you choose. For example a site like Engadget has a name that is brandable, but it also includes the word “gadget”. Double duty name!
2. Keyword rich name: A keyword rich name will include keywords in the title that can give cues as to what your blog is about. This can be great for search engine traffic as search engines will often look to your url to determine whether your search results are relevant to a given topic.   Try brainstorming names for your blog by choosing a list of relevant keywords, putting them together in different ways, and seeing what you come up with.  You may also want to try and do some keyword research to find some popular but not over-saturated keywords that you can use for your site.

Personally I prefer keyword rich names because of the SEO boost they give you, and because they help you identify what your site is about before the visitor even comes to your blog. Either way, make sure you do some careful research before deciding on a name.  Coming up with some blanks for good keywords? Get out a thesaurus or research top search keywords for other sites in your niche.  Be creative!

Choosing A Domain Name And URL

If you’re going to be trying to come up with keyword rich name like I did, a fantastic site to check out is NameBoy.com. The site will allow you to enter in a couple of keywords you are considering, and then it will come up with a list of possible domain names and tell you which ones are already taken.

When choosing a domain name you’ll have the choice of a variety of different domain extensions. Some of the most popular ones include .com, .net, .info, .me, .us. I would recommend only using a .com or .net domain name as they are the gold standard, and most users will trust a site with these extensions more.

Once you find a couple of names that you like you’ll want to run it by a few people to make sure it doesn’t sound funny, or conjure up things that you didn’t intend.  (Have you ever heard f the site www.expertsexchange.com? No, it isn’t a site about sex changes) Remember, once you choose a name, you’re probably going to be stuck with it for a while, so choose wisely.

Register Your Domain Name

The next step is to register your domain name. Some of the places I would recommend to
register a domain name include:

• Godaddy.com: This is where I have my 5 domains. Works well for me, and there are usually coupon codes available.
• Enom.com: Another popular domain registrars that a lot of bloggers use.
• NameCheap.com: Most people I’ve talked to lately seem to use this one.

These are just three registrars, but there are thousands of places that you can register your domain. My advice is to go with one of the big reliable domain registrars like godaddy or namecheap because managing the domains on their backends is easy and hassle free.

A Few Things To Remember When Buying Your Domain Name

There are a few things you should try to remember when buying your domain name:

• Try to register your domain name separately from your website host or other provider: Some website hosts will give you a free domain name when you sign up for hosting with their service. The problem is that often they still own the domain name, or it is tied to your account. That often makes it troublesome to switch hosts in the future if your traffic has grown or if you aren’t satisfied with a certain host. By registering your domain name separately you can guarantee that you’ll always have control over your domain.
• Try registering your domain with a company that will keep your information private: When registering your domain you will have the option to register your domain name privately, or to have your name and contact info available to all who look up your site’s “WHOIS” information. If you can, register your domain name privately to avoid having everyone know your name/address/phone.
• Make sure your domain name is easy to spell: If your name is hard to spell or if people are unsure of it’s meaning, it can be tough to get people to remember it.
• Choose a domain name with only words, no dashes: When picking your domain try to stay away from names like money-with-a-blog.com or the like. They can work, but they’re harder for people to remember, and are longer. Just leave the dashes out.
• Consider buying both the .com and .net version of the name: If you plan on being in it for the long haul, buying both domain names may be a good idea to protect your brand.
• Keep the domain name as short as possible: Having a shorter domain name makes it easier to remember.

Do you have any advice for folks picking a site name or domain?  What sites did you buy your domains at?

The post How To Pick A Domain Name And Places Where You Can Buy The URL appeared first on Blueprint For How To Make Money With A Blog.

Today I hope to take a quick look at some of the plugins I’m using, and talk about why I think they’re important.  While you may not want to use the exact ones I mention, finding one that is similar would be a good idea.

Don’t Use Too Many Plugins

Before we go any further, I want to put a word of warning out there for all of you newer bloggers. Plugins can be fun, and they can add a lot of wonderful functionality to your site, but you don’t want to go overboard.  There is such a thing as too much of a good thing.

If you add too many plugins to your site, you run the risk of having some of the following problems.

• Slowing down your site:  Too many plugins can mean too many database calls or processes that use too many resources.  It all depends on what plugins you’re using, and what they specifically do.
• Security holes:  Some plugin authors may not have your best interest at heart, and plugins can lead to security holes in your site. Be careful about which ones you use – and make sure it’s from a trusted source.
• Cause problems with your site, or conflict with other plugins:  Sometimes a plugin might have poorly written code, or doesn’t use server processes as efficiently as it should. This can lead to conflicts with other plugins, and with WordPress core files.  Worst case scenario, it could bring your site down.

Plugins I Use

You can find a ton of free WordPress plugins at the WordPress plugins depository.  Plugins that have a cost associated you’ll need to find via their creator’s sites as they won’t be in the repository.

Here are some of my favorite plugins that I use on most of my sites:

Akismet
» Automattic (url)
Akismet is an anti-spam plugin for your comments on your site. If you get any kind of traffic at all, you will get spam comments.  While Akismet does have it’s issues, it’s worked fine for me.  There are several other decent anti-spam plugins available, and you should be using at least one of them.

All in One SEO Pack
» Michael Torbert (url)
Out-of-the-box SEO for your WordPress blog that allow you to optimize your SEO including custom page and post titles, meta descriptions, keywords and more.  Some frameworks have this built in so you won’t necessarily need it, but if yours doesn’t, you should get it for sure.

Audio player
» Martin Laine (url)
If you plan on hosting any .mp3 files on your site, you’ll need an audio player. This is one of the better ones I found.

BackWPup
» Daniel Hüsken (url)
Backup and more of your WordPress Blog Database and Files.  I’ve had some issues getting it to work correctly on sites with a larger database, otherwise it’s great.

BackupBuddy
» Daniel Hüsken (url)
Backup and more of your WordPress Blog Database and Files. No experience using it, but have been told it’s great.   You NEED to backup your site, so get this one, or one of the others listed here.

Contact Form
» Takayuki Miyoshi (url)
Contact form plugin so that your contact page will look nice and actually work as you want it to. You can also create custom forms if need be.

Executable PHP widget
» Otto (url)
At some point you’re probably going to want to enter some PHP into one of your sidebar widgets. This plugin will allow you to do that.

Google XML Sitemaps
» Arne Brachhold (url)
This plugin will generate a XML sitemap which will help search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing and Ask.com to better index your blog.  I use it on all my sites.

MaxBlogPress Ninja Affiliate
» MaxBlogPress (url)
Automatically convert keywords on your blog into money making affiliate links. Also manage, track, cloak and shorten unlimited number of affiliate links from one central location of Maxblogpress Ninja Affiliate.  Premium plugin, but worth it if you plan on making money from your site via affiliates.

No Self Pings
» Michael D. Adams (url)
Keeps WordPress from sending pings to your own site. Otherwise, you’ll get a ton of trackbacks – every time you link to an old post, or another resource on your site.

Ozh’ Admin Drop Down Menu
» Ozh (url)
Gives the admin site a nice horizontal drop down menu instead of links on the side. You may not need this, but I prefer the interface this gives me.

PopUp Domination
» Deer Digital (url)
If you plan on having a mailing list (and you should), this plugin will help you to increase your opt-in rate for new subscribers. Why?  Cause it looks pretty and is hard to miss.

RSS Signature
» Brendan Borlase (url)
Add a customised signature or tag-line to your RSS feed(s).  I use this for adding in custom author signatures and sometimes an ad to the RSS feed.

Smart 404
» Michael Tyson (url)
Sometimes people get to your site through a bad url.  When content cannot be found, Smart 404 will use the current URL to attempt to find matching content, and redirect to it automatically. Smart 404 also supplies template tags which provide a list of suggestions, for use on a 404.php template page if matching content can’t be immediately discovered.

SRG Clean Archives
» Sean R. (url)
The built in WordPress archive page isn’t that great. This plugin will give you a nice neatly organized archive page.

Subscribe To Comments
» Mark Jaquith (url)
Allows readers to receive notifications of new comments that are posted to an entry.  Great for engaging browsers and getting them to come back to your site.

Thesis OpenHook
» Rick Beckman (url)
This plugin is great if you’re using the Thesis WordPress Framework as your theme.  It allows you to add content to your site without getting into the custom functions files or having to get deep into PHP.

W3 Total Cache
» Frederick Townes (url)
You’re going to need a caching plugin – especially if your site is running on a shared server. W3 Total Cache is one of the better caching plugins available, although if you’re a beginning user, you may need some help implementing the more advanced features.

WordPress.com Stats
» Automattic (url)
Tracks views, post/page views, referrers, and clicks.  If you’re a blogger, of course you’re going to need to know your stats!

WordPress Backup
» Blog Traffic Exchange (url)
Backup the upload directory (images), current theme directory, and plugins directory to a zip file. Zip files optionally sent to email.  This is good to use if you’re using a standalone database backup plugin, and still need to backup your site files.

WordPress Database Backup
» Austin Matzko (url)
On-demand and scheduled backups of your WordPress database. You MUST have some sort of backup plan in place.

WordPress Download Monitor
» Mike Jolley (url)
Manage downloads on your site, view and show hits, and output in posts.  If you plan on having downloads of any sort available, it’s nice to have to track downloads of your .pdf, .mp3 or other files.

WordPress Related Posts
» Denis (url)
Generate a related posts list that shows on your post pages. Keep readers engaged and reading other content on your site!

WP-Email
» Lester ‘GaMerZ’ Chan (url)
Allows the user to email a friend a version of your WordPress blog’s post/page.

WP-PageNavi
» Lester ‘GaMerZ’ Chan & scribu (url)
Adds a more advanced paging navigation to your WordPress blog.  Much better than what is built into most themes and WordPress.

WP-Print
» Lester ‘GaMerZ’ Chan (url)
Displays a printable version of your WordPress blog’s post/page.

WP-Table Reloaded
» Tobias Bäthge (url)
This plugin allows you to create and easily manage tables in the admin-area of WordPress.  Have some tax rates you want to display, or a list of your favorite CDs? This makes displaying your table easy and pretty.

WPtouch
» Dale Mugford & Duane Storey (BraveNewCode Inc.) (url)
A plugin which formats your site with a mobile theme for visitors on Apple iPhone / iPod touch, Google Android, Blackberry Storm and Torch, Palm Pre and other touch-based smartphones.  Must have if you want mobile users to be able to easily use your site.

What Plugins Do You Use?

The list of plugins that I use isn’t exhaustive obviously, but the basics are here.  There are a ton of other great plugins out there that you can use, so at this point I’d like to open it up to you the reader.

What plugins do you use on your WordPress site?  What functionality does it add – and why do you think others should use it?

The post What WordPress Plugins Should I Use On My Blog? appeared first on Blueprint For How To Make Money With A Blog.

Why You Need To Backup

Your blog took a lot of hard work to get up and running, and to build up over the long months and years.  Backing up your site is just an insurance policy against losing your valuable property – your site.  Why might you need to backup – what might cause a need for restoring your site?

• You get hacked:  This is one of the more common reasons I’ve seen that people need to revert to a backup copy of their site.  They find out that their site has been hacked and malicious code inserted into their database.  Once they figure out at what point the hack was implemented, they can restore to a backup from before that date.
• Upgrade gone wrong:   Sometimes a WordPress upgrade or plugin update will cause a problem, and the site files or database  might become corrupted.  Having a backup means you’ll have something to go back to.
• Host Errors: I just read one horror story of a woman who didn’t have a backup, and her host “accidentally canceled her account”.   She lost her entire site.   Make sure you have insurance against the stupidity of someone who might accidentally flip a switch somewhere on the interwebs.

What  Should I Backup For My Site?

There are a few main things that you should consider backing up.

• WordPress database:  Always make a backup of your database. It contains all your posts, comments, settings and more.
• WordPress plugin: You’ll want to make sure that you download and backup all of your WordPress plugins, so that you can easily re-upload them.
• WordPress themes: Most serious bloggers have a custom theme or framework that they run their sites on.  Backing that up is critical.
• User Images and Files(wp-content folder):   You’ll want to make sure to backup all of your user created content and uploads.  That includes images, videos, etc found in your wp-content folder.

How Often Should I Backup My Site?

You should be backing your site up as often as you think it is needed.   Personally I back the site up as often as I post on the site.

If I post daily on a particular site, I backup the database every day as well. If I post weekly, I backup weekly.

As far as site files, they tend not to change as often, and I’ll usually only backup the site files on a weekly basis.

Another time you should always do a backup is right before you do an upgrade or update of  the WordPress core files.  Things sometimes go wrong during that process, and having a backup in case something does go wrong is important.

WordPress Backup Plugins To Make It Easy

Trying to set up a backup for your site can be a bit intimidating.  Luckily these days backing up your WordPress site and database is easier than ever.  There are quite a few plugins available for WordPress that will allow you schedule a regular backup of your database or your site files – or both.

Here are some of the backup plugins I think are the best that I’ve used. My current favorite is Backup Buddy for it’s ease of use and reliability.

• Backup Buddy: Scheduled backups for all your data, posts, files, media, themes, & more.  Basically, it backs up everything!  It’s a premium plugin, however, and a license for 2 sites is $75.  Be sure to find a coupon code, and read my full Backup Buddy review.
  
• WordPress Database Backup: This is the main database backup plugin that I use.  You can set it up to do scheduled database backups to be sent to your email address, as well as a ton of options to include or exclude parts of the database.  You can also do manual database backups before doing an upgrade or something along those lines.  Backs up the database only.
• WordPress Backup: I just discovered this plugin which allows you to back up your site’s plugins, theme files and uploads directory. In other words, most of the site files you would need in case of a catastrophe. Good to be used in conjunction with a database backup plugin. I’m using this now in conjunction with WordPress Database Backup. Backs up site files only.
• WP-DBManager: Another good database backup plugin that a lot of folks use. Tons of options for backing up, optimizing and repairing your database.  More of a swiss army knife type database plugin.
• BackWPup:  Another all-in-one backup solution that allows you to schedule a backup your database, site files or schedule regular optimization of your database.   I’ve just started testing this one, but if it works as advertised it should be pretty cool, and could possibly replace the two plugins I’m currently using.
• Automatic WordPress Backup:  Another plugin that backs up everything including your database, site files, and more to an Amazon S3 server.  Storage space at Amazon will cost, but it’s pretty reasonable and very reliable.

So those are the main backup plugins that I would recommend.  There are others available, but the ones above are among the best in my opinion.

NOTE: Always keep several backups of your database and site files.   I keep a copy of my site files on each of my home computers, as well as zipped and sent to my gmail account, and on an online backup service. My database is backed up and emailed to my gmail account daily, while I also download a copy of the database every week or so. The key here is to keep several copies in different locations, just in case.

Your Host May Offer Automatic Backups As Well

Most website hosts will provide some sort of  software to backup your site. Check with your host to find out what services and programs they provide.  For mine, I just went into the hosting control panel, and there was an option there to setup a backup.

It should be noted, however, you probably won’t want this to be your only option – just in case your host makes an error and deletes your account, or there is a disk error or other hosting mishap.  Always keep a backup separate from your hosting account.

For information about backing up a database or site files manually, please see these articles from WordPress.org: Backing Up Your Database or Backing Up Your WordPress Files

Conclusion

Backing up your site is one of the more important things you can do when first setting up your site.  It will ensure that you don’t lose all of the fruits of your hard labor if the worst case scenario happens.  Unfortunately, it happens more often than you might think.

Make sure you backup, and backup often! Otherwise you could be in for a world of trouble!

How do you backup your site?  Do you use one of the plugins above, or do you prefer to do it manually?  How often do you backup?  (or do you not backup at all – hoping that nothing will happen?) Tell us in the comments!

The post How To Backup Your WordPress Database And Site Files appeared first on Blueprint For How To Make Money With A Blog.

When I first started blogging seriously in 2008 I didn’t really know what revenue sources were available to me as a blogger. About the only things I knew about were Adsense and CPM (cost per thousand) ad banner types. What I didn’t realize is that there are a plethora of other ways to make money with a blog.

10 Ways To Make Money With A Blog

After about 6 months of blogging, and a lot of research I realized that there are a ton of ways you can make money with a blog, and it wasn’t just Adsense.

1. Pay Per Click (PPC) Ad Networks:  You can make money with pay per click ad networks along the lines of Adsense and Chitika.  These types of companies will pay you anywhere from pennies to dollars every time someone clicks on one of their ads on your site.  Google Adsense is by far my biggest money maker currently – and can be a good source of income even for newer bloggers.
2. Private Ad Sales & Sponsorships:  Selling your own advertising space can be a very lucrative monetization method, mainly because it allows you to cut out the middle man (third party ad networks) and keep 100% of all the money you make instead of just getting a commission from a network.  Of course you have to do the hard work of selling the ads too!
3. CPM Ad Networks: Another great way to make money based on your site traffic is through CPM ad networks.  CPM networks are a lot like PPC networks, except in the fact that they don’t pay you for
   clicks, but instead pay you each time their ad is served.  So if they pay you a $1 CPM, you’ll receive $1 for every thousand ads served.  Finding a premium network for your niche that pays a high CPM is key to making good money with this.
4. Affiliate And Referral Networks: Companies and individuals are more than willing to pay you if you can get someone to purchase their product or sign up for their service.   It usually works best when you promote products  you actually use and believe in.  Usually a company will pay you a  percentage of a sale or a flat fee.  It can be quite lucrative if you do it right.  Promoting these affiliate type offers does the best via reviews or via an opt-in email list.
5. Referral and GPT Networks (Get Paid To Websites):  There are quite a few sites out there that will pay you to fill out surveys, sign up for trial offers, buy products and refer new users to the programs.  I’ve signed up for several of them, and found that the real money is to be made in referring new users.  One example that has worked the best for me is  Cash Crate.
6. Creating Your Own Product To Sell: A lot of bloggers will diversify their income by creating their own products that they can sell on their site. Things like creating their own e-book (like the one I’m selling!), online classes, selling a service and membership websites have all become very popular.
7. Text Link Ads:  Some newer bloggers find that once their site gets a page rank above zero, they’ll start getting offers from other sites and individuals who want to buy a text link ad on their site. While you can make some good  money doing this, I have chosen not to partake in text link ads because Google has stated that they don’t like them, and it’s possible at some point sites that sell them could be docked in the search engines.   And you NEED search engine traffic to be successful.   So seller beware.
8. Sponsored Reviews:  Some companies will pay you to review their products or to do a sponsored post.  Just make double sure to post a notice that these posts are sponsored as required by the FTC.
9. Paid Writing Positions: Once you’ve built up some content on your own site, sometimes higher profile sites will offer to pay you to write for their sites as well. Your blog can stand as a resume of sorts for those looking to hire writers.
10. Selling A Service: Some people will use their site promote a service that they’re offering.  For example, you may offer consulting services via your blog, or maybe you offer design services.
11. Bonus Idea – Sell Your Blog:  I know some folks who enjoy the process of building a blog, but don’t want to continue doing it long term. Instead they build the site up to a decent amount of traffic and content, and then sell the site itself!

So those are a few of the ways I’ve found to make money with my site – although there are other things I’ve done as well.

What it really comes down to is that your options for making money with your site are only really limited by your creativity.  The key is to diversify, and create multiple streams of income via your site(s).  That way, if one source of income dries up, you’ll still have others that you can fall back on.

Do you have other ideas for making money with a blog?  What strategies do you use for monetizing?  Tell us in the comments!

The post How Can I Make Money With My Blog? 10 Monetization Strategies For Bloggers appeared first on Blueprint For How To Make Money With A Blog.