Writing Success

Welcoming Your Readers

I love writing, but I can admit that I’m not the most tech-saavy individual on earth. I can follow a good set of instructions and learn how to complete almost any task, but when left to figure it out on my own am prone to - well - disaster.

The other day I read an awesome post by blogger Amanda Fazani from Blogger Buster (albiet, the post was on Blogging Tips) about adding a welcome message to your blog. There are dozens of blogs today that have welcome messages in boxes above the first post. They state what the blog is about and thank readers for stopping by, but they aren’t part of any one post - they’re completely separate.

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Google Privacy Policies

Here’s a quick reminder for those of you who are new to writing and blogging. If you are anything like I was, I know that when you sign up for services you do not read the entire Terms of Service document before clicking the little checkbox that says that you’ve read it while creating your account. Just give me the account already, right?

Don’t be embarassed. It’s human nature.

This usually doesn’t cause problems, but if you’re running Google AdSense on your blog it just might. Here’s why.

Back in early 2008 (I believe), Google made some major changes to their Terms of Service. One of the changes mandated that users running AdSense on their websites and blogs include a privacy policy detailing the fact that third party advertisers may use cookies and other tracking methods in their marketing. I really doesn’t have much to do with your page itself, but with what happens when users click on advertisements in your blog.

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Constructing Great Blog Posts

There are quite a few different niches you can find yourself working in as a freelance writer. Some choose to focus on feature magazine articles, some publish ebooks, and others prefer blogging. Others incorporate blogging with whatever else they choose to write.

I won’t go into the details surrounding why a person might blog in conjunction with another project - that’s a conversation for another day. I would, however, like to talk about some of the things you should include in each blog post in order to make sure it’s the best that it can be.

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The WP-Ban Wordpress Plugin

Here’s a quick tip for some of the more experience bloggers in the audience. Chances are you get up every morning, check your comments, and then dreadfully click on the Akismet Spam folder in an attempt to make sure no real comments ended up in your spam box.

What you’ll begin to notice, over time, is that most of your spam comments are coming from the same IP address. You’ll eventually wish these spammers couldn’t leave you a message at all, and that’s the problem the WP-Ban Wordpress Plugin solves.

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Updating the Copyright on your WP Blog

Happy New Year! It is now 2009 (watch out when writing those checks) and I have a question. Does your WordPress website show your copyright as 2008 or 2009?

Copyright itself can be a tricky subject. While the newest copyright laws say that an item is copyrighted upon creation (whether registered or not), it’s still important to make sure that your property (intellectual included) is protected against theft.

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WordPress 101 - Upgrading to Version 2.7

WordPress 2.7 was released earlier this month and bloggers all over the web rushed to upgrade. This is a relatively quick upgrade, considering WordPress just went from version 2.6.3 to version 2.6.5 in late November. For those paying attention, WordPress skipped version 2.6.4. This is due largely in part to a security glitch and the fact that some imposters were advertising a version 2.6.4 that never existed.

To be honest, WordPress 2.7 looks like a fantastic upgrade. It was inspired by jazz themes and makes it easy for you to customize your blog and the way the admin area shows. There’s a feature that allows you to search for and install plugin features directly from your admin page and another that allows you to reply to comments directly from your dashboard. The key is the ability to remain flexibile and improvise, and WordPress 2.7 gives bloggers exactly that.

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