2. Tools of the Trade - Michael Aulia

Tools of the Trade Michael Aulia www.cravingtech.com @michaelaulia Michael Aulia, www.cravingtech.com

Blogging Platforms
Which Platform to choose?
Michael Aulia, www.cravingtech.com

Blogging Platforms
Google Blogger
WordPress (.com or self-hosted)
Tumblr
Square Space
Posterous
Movable Type
…

Blogger vs WordPress Michael Aulia, www.cravingtech.com

Google Blogger
Why choose Google Blogger?
Easy to set-up Just type in your blog’s URL such as myextremelycoolandwonderfulblog.blogspot.com, done.
Simple to use, good for new bloggers
Your blog is stored/hosted by one of the biggest companies in the world

Google Blogger
BUT!!

Google Blogger
Google controls what you can or cannot do
Limited options (widgets/gadgets)
Say goodbye to your blog if Google bans you

WordPress
You can host your own WordPress blog
You own your posts, your readers comments, your photos
You have full control of your blog (layout, commenting system, additional toolbars, etc). Total flexibility!
More professional looking themes
You can sell your blog in the future easily
My favorite:

WordPress
Plugins, Plugins, and More plugins!

WordPress
Plugin to calculate the score of your post’s SEO (ClickBump SEO)
Plugin to add a “subscribe to newsletter” tickbox underneath every post (Qoate Newsletter Signup)
Plugin to display a mobile version of your blog to mobile users automatically (WPtouch)
Plugin to display related posts to lower your blog’s bounce rate (YARPP)
Plugin to automatically backup your blog daily, weekly, or monthly (lots of ‘em)
More, more, and more

Not ready yet?
Get your own domain name at Google Blogger
Easily maintain the rankings when you migrate to WordPress in the future
Same URL to share with your readers
Looks more professional (URL and Email address)
Easier to sell as the domain will be well-established

Stats Michael Aulia, www.cravingtech.com

Stats
What are the things you can find in stats?

Stats - What
The number of unique visitors to your blog
Visitors demographics, browser they use, mobile/non-mobile, etc
Your most top visited posts
Where your traffic are coming from
A breakdown of each social media traffic
Keywords that people search to reach your blog
Campaign management, Segments

Stats
Why is it important to look at stats? Why bother?

Stats – Why?
It goes well with the morning coffee
It keeps you motivated – track your blog’s progress

Stats – Why?
Find out what works and what’s not (Twitter? Facebook? StumbleUpon? LinkedIn?)
Get an idea for your next blog post
Find out which posts need to be optimised further for SEO

Stats
Google Analytics

Tools to speed up your blog Michael Aulia, www.cravingtech.com

Why speed is important
First impression lasts
Smoother experience for your visitors
Google takes speed into account for ranking
Unexpected surge of traffic from the social media might happen

Caching Michael Aulia, www.cravingtech.com

Caching
What is caching?
Michael Aulia, www.cravingtech.com Your Blog
Post contents
Comments
Theme’s stylesheet
Recent posts
Author information
Others
Single visitor, without caching

Caching Michael Aulia, www.cravingtech.com Multi visitors, without caching

Caching Michael Aulia, www.cravingtech.com Multi visitors, with caching

Caching
Reduces page load times
Puts less strain on the server
Compresses data, visitors get your blog content quicker
Improves blog’s speed significantly

Caching
W3 Total Cache

CDN
Content Delivery Network

CDN
Spread your blog contents into different servers around the world
Visitors get your blog contents quicker, grabbed from the server that’s closer to them
Less strain on the original server that hosts your blog
Your blog never goes offline! It’ll grab a copy of your blog from another live server

CDN
CloudFlare

CloudFlare
Free
More than 10 powerful servers around the world (Singapore, Hongkong, U.S, Tokyo, etc)
Adds an extra layer of protection from spammers or hackers

CloudFlare
30 days of using CloudFlare on my blog:
Without CloudFlare, loading time was 3.51 sec. With CloudFlare, loading time is now 1.89 sec.
4.5 million requests saved by CloudFlare (out of 5.1 million)
39.4 GB bandwidth saved by CloudFlare (out of 60.3 GB bandwidth)
Overall, CloudFlare makes my blog load about 46% faster

CDN
CloudFlare

Image Compression Tool
Yahoo! Smush.It

Smush.It
A free online service
Compresses images/photos by stripping unnecessary info from the file (20% smaller file size in average)
Smaller image size means faster loading time for your visitors
Big impact when you use lots of photos on your blog posts

Smush.It
Go to smush.it, upload an image to compress, download the compressed image, and use it on your blog post.
Smush.It WordPress plug-in

Speed up your blog
W3 Total Cache + CloudFlare + Smush.It
To test: use webpagetest.org

My Favorite Tools Michael Aulia, ww.cravingtech.com

WiseStamp Michael Aulia, www.cravingtech.com

Windows Live Writer Michael Aulia, www.cravingtech.com

ClickBump SEO Michael Aulia, www.cravingtech.com

2. Tools of the Trade - Michael Aulia

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2. Tools of the Trade - Michael Aulia — Presentation Transcript