The infamous Hot Pink Thong post optimization example article.

Its been ALMOST A YEAR since I wrote this article, since then I’ve moved overseas twice, joined an internet marketing powerhouse in Manchester known worldwide as “The Manchester Mob” and payed very little attention to the words “Hot Pink Thong”. Regardless, this little article is ranked #1 for phrase match and #3 for broad match.

What I’m trying to highlight with this post, is that age matters. If you correctly optimize a blog post it will continue to rank over time and its rank will even improve.

To look back in time, here is the original hot pink thong article

The follow up article

And the original blog post optimization article.

So with that, until next time!

©2012 Superior Blogs. All Rights Reserved.

Zemanta launched their tool just a few weeks ago {boom, this very article just reached 300 characters and the articles list displayed six links to articles about Zemanta and updated the images it initially displayed}. The company actually started in August 2007 and they have some interesting posts that allow you to follow them thru their growth including competing in SeedCamp.

Once you install the plugin into FireFox it will place a Zemanta box into your WordPress Write/Manage Post right column. {boom, there it goes again, it added a few FireFox images and another link that has something to do with FireFox}.

Zemanta also adds a Links box below the Write box and places suggested tags in the Tag section. All of their suggested images and articles are licensed as Creative Commons, or approved by stock providers, so there is no issue of copyright infringement.

I will continue testing the Zemanta plugin as I like the idea of a research assistant that provides content links which allows me to write better articles and save time. As you review the suggested links and add to your article, hopefully with your own content (based on knowledge you gain) or insert links to the suggested articles (as I have inserted below) Zemanta keeps coming back with better recommendations. Not even a human assistant can work this fast!

I think this one is going to be a big hit especially as they improve its performance and add other capabilities. One of Zemanta’s ideas is to sell the text links that it displays while you are writing, to third parties. I’m not sure I like that idea as a blogger since it kind of defeats the originality of the content.

As of now the Zemanta FireFox Plugin works with the following blogging platforms:

• WordPress {dot} com
• WordPress (self hosted)
• Blogger
• TypePad

Check it out: Zemanta.com

©2012 Superior Blogs. All Rights Reserved.

With the latest WordPress 2.5 upgrade there is no way to set your Page or Post Slug while in the Write mode. I believe this is a critical oversight on the part of the development team. Yes, newbies don’t understand it and probably would never use it, but anyone who is a serious blog developer knows the value of using Page and Post Slugs.

I could write a lengthy article on using WordPress Slugs, but I know that Michael Gray, from GrayWolf’s SEO Blog, has a fantastic article on Optimizing WordPress Page Titles, Post Titles and Page Slugs. It will give you an excellent understanding of the importance of creating your own Page or Post Slugs in WordPress and how it can impact your SEO.

Hopefully, you read GrayWolf’s article and are ready to change your Post and Page Slugs. How? Here’s the bit of pain… you have to add an extra step in your article writing process and why I think this was a critical oversight. See what happens when you are in a hurry to get an article out-the-door … Over the past week I have been creating a new theme for SuperiorBlogs.com and testing it with WordPress version 2.5 and in my haste to multitask, I did not notice that Slugs are still a part of the Write process, albeit different than past versions.

In order to manage your WordPress Slugs you have to open your new post or page after publishing (or saving) it via the Manage section of your admin panel. As shown, you will find a Permalink setting just under the Title. Click on the edit link and put your SEO skills to work creating your unique WordPress Slug. When you type in your Post Title and tab down to the write window, you will notice that your Permalink located just below the title (see the image) will update to the Title you just input, assuming you are using pretty permalinks (we use /%postname%/).

Technorati Tags: WordPress 2.5 Page Slug,WordPress 2.5 Post Slug,WordPress Slug,WordPress Page Slug,WordPress Post Slug

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Yes, the ID field is still used and you can reveal what a Page, Post, Category, or Tag’s ID is by mousing over the title or by opening the stored item and looking for it at the end of the URL in your browser’s address bar.

If you want the display to show the ID field here’s a nice {brand new} little Plugin that advanced users of WordPress will appreciate.  For Pages and Posts it adds the ID column back into the displays and puts the ID in parenthesis right after each Category name.  Now Oliver just needs to add support for Tags.

WordPress Plugin Directory: Reveal IDs For WP Admin 2.5 Plugin

Plugin Homepage: www.Schloebe.de

Technorati Tags: WordPress Plugin,WordPress Plugins,Plugin,Blog Tools,Blog Plugin,Blog Development

©2012 Superior Blogs. All Rights Reserved.

There are a few things that peak my interest, like faster load times and a customizable dashboard.

Get your peek of the WordPress 2.5 release:

WordPress 2.5 Sneak Peek

©2012 Superior Blogs. All Rights Reserved.

This could be an interesting add-on. I especially like what Matt said to TechCrunch about “sharecropping” and “It’s our friends, our time, our connections, our data — it should be our software.”

This sounds to me like Automattic has a strategy to enable its users to create their own Social Networks using WordPress. What do you think?

Technorati Tags: WordPress,Social Networks,Social Media,BuddyPress

©2012 Superior Blogs. All Rights Reserved.

Another consideration in doing things this way, is that everything you do is completely visible to anybody who stumbles across your site while you are fiddling. If you have an established blog that you are updating, it is highly likely that many visitors will have to endure the many small errors you make until you fix them. In the past I’ve also been known to add some extra steps to my testing loop. I edit a file, FTP it to the server, refresh the page, if there is an error I will roll back immediately, which is another step with more FTPing. This takes time… HEAPS of time!

Recently I decided to do a complete re-design and re-code on a series of travel sites I own. This meant coding everything from scratch but I really couldn’t afford to disable anything I currently had running. I had finally had enough, I needed a better way. I knew what it was, but I had always been too lazy to bother with the potentially painful and time consuming task of setting up a local webserver. I considered adding a standalone box to my network simply for testing. I had also considered running a webserver on my development workstation. From experience I know its a P.I.T.A. to set up an Apache server with PHP and SQL, but the time had come as I really needed something!

You know those moments in life when you feel like fresh air has lifted a trouble from your soul? Well, I have to be honest and say, with very little effort, my troubles were lifted and I felt that fresh air!

The answer comes in a miracle little package, its called WAMP and you can download it for free from WampServer.com. Download it now, no really, just do it!

Here’s the instructions for setting up the WAMP server package. It includes an Apache server, PHP and SQL, but how hard is the whole deal to set up?

Instructions:

1. Download WAMPServer package
2. Run the install
3. Vioala! Feel that fresh air, inhale life, you are done!

No joke, after running the install, you have a fully functioning webserver with PHP and SQL. Not only that, but management of your projects is easy as pie. Just point your browser towards localhost (just type ‘localhost’ in the address bar and press enter).

The default installation directory for your websites is “c:\wamp\www\”. Under this directory you will create a new folder for each new project. To manage your SQL databases, simple browse to localhost, and click on PHPmyadmin. You log in as root, with no password, and then you can go for your life with db installs.

If, for example, you want to install WordPress, or something like PHPBB, just unzip the package to an appropriate sub-directory, like “c:\wamp\www\blog” and then browse to localhost/blog. Follow the same install instructions as if you were installing these programs on a remote server, and vioala!

Once you have your files and databases all ready to go, you will see a fully functioning version of your website on your local PC. You don’t even need to be connected to the internet. Further, pages load instantly without a single seconds delay. If you want to make changes just use your windows explorer and head over to your blogs root directory.

For this example, browse to “c:\wamp\www\blog” and make any changes to the files there in notepad or whatever editor (anything works, Dreamweaver, Frontpage, anything.) You are really just editing a file as if it was on your desktop. No need to FTP anything, just save your changes and press F5 to refresh your browser. Vioala! (I’ve been using that word a lot in this article). No need to roll back, no need to worry about people being able to see your progress and/or errors, but most of all … no need to FTP!

You should be running a Firewall regardless, but the WAMP package seems to be well secured. While there is an option to put your site “online”, I would only recommend using WAMP to test files in “offline” mode. You can get a completely working version of your website, and then you can just dump it all onto your host. Transferring SQL databases is also easy providing your host has the PHPmyadmin program.

Just export your databases from your localhost SQL server and save the file on your local system, then load up your hosts PHPmyadmin program and do the opposite, using the import function.

It’s simply fantastic people, a huge time saver and it really improves your visitors experience since you’ll be doing all your dev-work on your WordPress blog locally.

Technorati Tags: WordPress,WordPress Local,WordPress Locally,WAMP,WAMP Server,Local WordPress Install,Run WordPress Locally

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