Category: Blogging

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Blogging Internet SEO

The Panda Slap

If you run a website and have basic interest in SEO, you probably heard that Google recently released their so-called Panda update, a change in algorithm aimed at getting rid of the shitty sites such as eHow.com and similar content farms.

The change in the algorithm came in 2 iterations. The first one came out on February 24th, in the US only, affecting about 10% of search queries. The second one was released on April 11th and was rolled out in the rest of English-speaking countries, also making a slight change to the US algo, which supposedly affects an additional 2% of US queries.

On the morning of February 25th, I was glad to see that my iPhone blog had gone through the update and came out unhurt. Even better than that, it seemed I was doing even better in search engines. It was nice to see Google recognizing me as a good resource. Then on April 12, everything changed when I realized the second iteration of the Panda update had slapped me in the face. Big time!

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Blogging

Briefly unavailable for scheduled maintenance. Check back in a minute.

I just updated one of my WordPress blogs to the latest version available, directly from the WP admin panel. After hitting the “please update now” link, I was quickly presented this message: “Briefly unavailable for scheduled maintenance. Check back in a minute.”

For the first minute or so I thought WordPress was working in the background and that my site would be back up in a couple minutes. But 5 minutes later, it was still displaying this message. I’d be lying to you if I said I wasn’t worrying…

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Blogging

Find Your Voice

Everyday I see people online that are trying really hard to blog and pretend to be what they’re not. They usually try to use very complicated words, or they try to make themselves bigger than they are by saying “we”, when they should just say “I”.

Why do people do this? They try to impress us because they are worried that if they show what they really are, then they won’t be taken seriously. Reality is, it’s quite the opposite. If you pretend to be what you’re not, people will eventually figure it out and you will lose all respect they might have had for you.

Because it’s easier to show what you really are than pretending to be someone you’re not, finding your voice on your blog shouldn’t be a painful exercise and will benefit you greatly.

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Blogging

I’m A Blogger

blogger

Earlier this year I wrote a post about how I make money online in which I stressed the fact that it was hard for me to explain people what my job is when they ask what I do for a living. At the time, I was doing many things online which made it hard for me to tell exactly what I was doing, especially to those people who don’t know much about ways of making money online.

Things have changed a lot since then. My lovely fiancee and I traveled the world, I gave up on Google Adsense after they gave up on me and decided to take me back after all, but most importantly, my iPhone blog went from about 300,000 visitors/month to over 1,500,000.

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Blogging

The Three Pillars of Blogging

3 pillars of blogging

In my previous article about how I make money online, I briefly mentionned that to run a blog, you need expertise about a given topic, time, and dedication. I think those are the three pillars of blogging.

When I tell people how I make money blogging, they get really excited and want to start their own blog. Some of them actually do start their own blog but the majority fails because they either lack expertise, time, or motivation. If one of the pillars is missing, your blog is going to collapse.

Let’s have a look at the three pillars.

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Blogging Internet Marketing

How I Make Money Online

make money online

When you meet someone for the first time, there is always a time in the conversation when you’re going to ask each other what you do for a living. When I was working for the man, the answer was easy. I would simply say “I’m the Vice President of Marketing for a web company that offers various services to franchise companies”.

Now that I am self-employed and that I generate 100% of my revenues on the Internet, I find it a bit harder to explain what I do in one short and concise sentence. The best answer would be that I make money online. I’ve found that telling this usually generates about 60 more questions about the possible ways to make a living off a computer and an Internet connection.

In this article, I would like to discuss the various ways I make money online, mostly through blogging, content publishing and projects for clients.

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Blogging

7 Options to Tweak Right After Creating A WordPress Blog

settings

Congratulations, you just set up a WordPress blog, now what? WordPress is pretty much a turn key platform but there are still a few things you need to tweak in order to unleash its full potential.

In this article, I will share with you 7 options that I like to set right after installing a WordPress blog. Obviously these settings will not fit every one but I think they are good base for a solid blog.

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Blogging Internet

How to Set Up Your WordPress Blog

wordpress logo

This article is going to show you how to set up a WordPress blog. Before setting up WordPress and starting blogging, you will need to register a domain name and find a hosting plan. That might sound obvious to most of you but I want to make sure to be as clear as possible for beginners.

In my last article, I suggested you use DreamHost for several reasons. I use this hosting company and have been very satisfied with them. For the purpose of this article, I will assume that your domain name is registered with GoDaddy and that your host is DreamHost. If you have a different domain registrar and host, steps would be somewhat similar.

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Blogging Internet

How to Find A Host For A Blog

hosting

In a previous article, I gave a few tips on how to find and register a domain name. The next step to setting up your own blog is to find a good hosting plan.

People are sometimes confused about what hosting is. Many think the hosting is the domain name. It’s not. A domain name is the “address” of your site (ie. http://www.DomainName.com). A hosting plan is where the actual content of your site will reside online.

Think about it as a hard drive. The hosting company provides a hard drive where your website will be stored and accessible to everyone thanks to the magics of the Internet.

There are tons of information online on how to find a hosting plan and I’m certainly not going to try to reinvent the wheel. I’ve been working with the same host for about 3 years now and I couldn’t be more satisfied with them, so I might be a little partial here…

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Blogging Internet

How to Find And Register A Good Domain Name

http

A good domain name can be a very valuable asset for your business or your online presence. In many cases, it will appear on your business cards, stationery, etc… In short, it is completely part of your branding.

Finding the right domain name is not always easy and can be a decision that will stick to you. This article will give you an overview on how to find, buy, and register a domain name. Before hurrying to register a domain name, make sure you take the following advice into consideration.

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