wordcamp 2011 - tom's top ten tips for blogging with wordpress
Post on 18-Oct-2014
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Here are the slides from my talk at WordCamp Boston yesterday. Thank you to everyone who came to my talk, I hope you enjoyed it and found at least one tip that is useful to you. For those of you who weren’t there, I hope these slides contain enough details to help you out as well. Some of the points covered broader topics for discussion, but some contain enough details on the slides that you should be able to find a plugin, widget, or configuration setting to help you execute the tip.TRANSCRIPT
Tom’s Top Ten Tips for Blogging with WordPress
@tomcataliniwww.TomCatalini.com
#wcbos
Talk Overview
• Ten tips, a few minutes on each• Interactive discussion, ideas from the crowd• Q&A, blog talk
Tom's Top Ten Blogging Tips for WordPress
Tom's Top Ten Blogging Tips for WordPress
1. Titles & SEO
2. Images grab attention
3. Write “bloggy”
4. Make posts shareable
5. Auto Tweet Posts too!
7. Organize
8. Invite subscribers
9. Show off the good stuff!
10. Post ideas & scheduling
6. Track your stats
Tom's Top Ten Blogging Tips for WordPress
Tip #1 – Permalinks for SEO
• Configure this before you start blogging
Tom's Top Ten Blogging Tips for WordPress
Tip #1 – Example
Tom's Top Ten Blogging Tips for WordPress
Tip #2 – Finding and using images
Tom's Top Ten Blogging Tips for WordPress
Flickr & Creative Commons
Tom's Top Ten Blogging Tips for WordPress
Tom's Top Ten Blogging Tips for WordPress
Tom's Top Ten Blogging Tips for WordPress
Flickr URL
Attribution
Link to photo
Tom's Top Ten Blogging Tips for WordPress
Adjust size
Give it some space
Tom's Top Ten Blogging Tips for WordPress
Tip # 3 – Writing Style
• Don’t bury the lead• Use a conversational tone• Be brief• Break things up visually• Vary sentence length• Loosen up the grammar grip
http://www.tomcatalini.com/website-101-how-to-write-in-that-bloggy-style/
Tom's Top Ten Blogging Tips for WordPress
Tip #4 – Make posts shareable
Google +1TweetMeme Retweet ButtonSociableWP Facebook Like
• Bottom of every post• Turn off for pages• Normal to large size• Include in RSS feed
Some good plugins:
Tom's Top Ten Blogging Tips for WordPress
Tip #5 – Auto-tweet your posts
• WP to Twitter plugin• Tons of configuration options– I keep it simple, post title and url
– Need to authorize for Twitter, bit.ly
Tom's Top Ten Blogging Tips for WordPress
Tip #6 – Track Your StatsGoogle Analytics: www.google.com/analytics
WordPress plugin: Google Analytics for WordPress
Tom's Top Ten Blogging Tips for WordPress
WordPress Stats: www.wordpress.comWordPress plugin: WordPress.com Stats
Tom's Top Ten Blogging Tips for WordPress
Tip #7 – Organize! (at least a little)
• When readers get to your site, what are they supposed to do?
• Make it easy and obvious for them to browse around
• Use categories when you post• Build menus from categories
Tom's Top Ten Blogging Tips for WordPress
Category-based menus, an example
Categories
Tom's Top Ten Blogging Tips for WordPress
Tom's Top Ten Blogging Tips for WordPress
Menus• Create a menu• Add categories• Drag & Drop to
arrange• Can be Hierarchical
Tom's Top Ten Blogging Tips for WordPress
Tip #8 – Invite subscribers
• Make your blog posts available via RSS and email
• Google’s Feedburner– Serves up your blog’s feed, but gives you more
control / stats• What Would Seth Godin Do? – Plugin invites new visitors to subscribe
Tom's Top Ten Blogging Tips for WordPress
Feedburner Services & Stats
Tom's Top Ten Blogging Tips for WordPress
Setup in Feedburner
Then configure WP to redirect via theme or plugin
Tom's Top Ten Blogging Tips for WordPress
Inserted by plugin: What Would Seth Godin Do?
Tom's Top Ten Blogging Tips for WordPress
Tip #9 – Show off the good stuff
Social Proof
More navigation options
PostRank Widget
Tom's Top Ten Blogging Tips for WordPress
Tom's Top Ten Blogging Tips for WordPress
Tip #10 – Post Ideas & Scheduling
• Ideas can come from anywhere and at any time – carry a notepad!
• Build a habit of writing - the more you write, the easier it gets
• Get used to editing your own work – from notepad to typed, use the Preview function, review after a post goes live
Tom's Top Ten Blogging Tips for WordPress
Drafts & Scheduling
Tom's Top Ten Blogging Tips for WordPress
Drafts & Scheduling
Tom's Top Ten Blogging Tips for WordPress
That’s 10!
Q&A / blog talk