How To Get Started After Installing Wordpress ( Wordcamp, Delhi )

How To Get Started After Installing Wordpress By Abhijeet Mukherjee Blogger & Internet Marketer WordCamp-Delhi, 21-22 Feb, 2009

Never Installed WP On Your Own ? Few Things You Need To Know
It’s not that difficult
Try to avoid using automated script installers
Learn by watching the how-to videos on wordpress.tv (or even Youtube)

Optimization Security Marketing

Let’s Optimize A Bit ! 

1. Edit the Permalink Structure
Permalinks are the permanent links to your blog posts and pages.
The default permalink in Wordpress looks like http://example.com/?p=N , where N is the post ID number.

Editing this default version is necessary so that it looks good to humans and to the search engine bots.
To change it, in your WP admin panel go to Settings -> Permalinks

You can now easily change the permalink structure to a more desirable format like %postname% , %category% / %postname% or any other such format.

2. Create a robots.txt file
A robots.txt file is a simple text file placed on your server which tells a search engine not to crawl certain areas of your site.
Search engine spiders usually look for a robots.txt file so it’s better to create one.
It’s also better to hide certain sections of the site from the eyes of search engines. ( Like your wp-admin folder )

You could easily create a robots.txt file on a notepad and upload it to the root directory of your blog via FTP.
A simple robots.txt file could look like :-
User-agent: *
Disallow:
You can write the bot name after User-agent and directory name to be excluded after Disallow . The above example allows all search spiders to crawl everything on your site.

Another example of a robots.txt file : -
User-agent: *
Disallow: /*/feed
Disallow: /*/trackback
Disallow: /category/
Disallow: /wp-admin/
You can easily check the robots.txt file of any site by going to http://www.sitename.com/robots.txt

3. Create a Sitemap and add it to Google Webmaster Tools
There can be two kinds of Sitemaps – 1. For the search engine spiders, and 2. For humans
The purpose of a sitemap in both the cases is the same – to provide a better visibility of your blog content and the way it is organized.

For a Wordpress blog, a sitemap can be easily created by installing the Google XML Sitemaps Plugin .
After you’ve successfully created a sitemap and added some content to the blog, don’t forget to submit Google Webmaster tools.

4. Install the All-In-One SEO Plugin
The All-In-One SEO plugin is an excellent plugin which helps you in optimizing your blog for search engines.
It provides many options to optimize the titles, meta tags and meta descriptions of your blog.

5. Organize Categories & Tags
Avoid using unnecessary categories and tags. It could become difficult managing them later.
Display a list of categories and/or a tag cloud on your blog sidebar.
Use a plugin like Simple Tags to organize your tags.

6. Organize Your Images
Change the default upload folder to a different folder or a sub domain. It makes managing your WP install easier in the long term.
You can go to Setting -> Miscellaneous in your WP admin and change the default settings

So that was about optimization. Now lets take some steps to add an extra layer of SECURITY to our blog.

1. Activate Akismet
Akismet is a plugin which keeps away the spam bots from taking over your blog’s comments section.
Provide a valid wordpress.com API key and activate Akismet immediately after you install WP.
Spam robots are better than search engines in discovering your blog..you never know when you start getting those weird comments. 

2. Hide Your Wordpress Folders
It’s important to prevent people from being able to browse your WP files and folders.
You can do it by adding the following line to your .htaccess file which is there in the main WP directory :-
Options All -Indexes

3. Hide the Wordpress Version
Your blog’s source file can easily reveal the version of WP you’ve got installed. Hence it’s better to hide it.
You can do it by adding the following line to functions.php file in your theme.
<?php remove_action('wp_head','wp_generator'); ?>

4. Backup Regularly
Use the Wordpress Database Backup Plugin to schedule automatic backup emails everyday.
Also backup the themes and images by downloading them through FTP or by using an automated script which runs on your server and creates backups automatically.

5. Change the Default Username
The default username for each Wordpress blog is the same – admin . In order to further secure your blog, you may consider changing this to something else.
To do it, go to Users in your WP admin and click Add New . Create a new account and give it administrative privileges. Then log in with this new account and delete the default admin account.

And finally, please use an unimaginable password which is 10-11 letters long and has alphabets, numbers and special characters. 

And now, lets get started with a few settings to help in the MARKETING of our Wordpress Blog

1. Install Feedburner Feedsmith Plugin
First, make sure you create an RSS feed for your blog at feedburner.google.com and get your feed url.
Install the Feedburner Feedsmith Plugin . This plugin is a very important one because it delivers the accurate number of RSS subscribers by redirecting different feed urls to your main feedburner feed.

2. Allow Easy Bookmarking Of Your Content
It’s important to let your readers bookmark content easily so that it could spread as fast and as far as possible.
You can add AddThis or ShareThis buttons at the end of each post to facilitate easy bookmarking.

3. Use Google Analytics
Google Analytics gives you a detailed analysis of visitor traffic, how much time they are spending on your blog and what do they like reading on your blog.
Create a free account with Google Analytics , add your blog and then add the script to footer.php in your theme directory.

4. Submit Your Blog To Technorati & Few Other Blog Directories
Technorati is a popular blog search engine which indexes millions of new blog posts in real time. Submit your blog and get more visibility in the blogosphere.
Also submit your blog to some other general directories and to certain directories specific to the niche of your blog.

Here’s a list of blog directories to start with :-
Bloghub.com
BlogCatalog.com
DMOZ
GetBlogs.com
Bloghop.com
Bloggernity.com

5. Comment On Other Blogs
Posting comments on other blogs helps you to network with other bloggers, build rapport and market your blog.
Although commenting on any good blog would help, try to focus more on blogs in your niche because the target audience is the same and many of them would prefer checking out your blog.

Last but not the least, always remember – Content is the King . Marketing can help only if the product is good. So write great stuff…and keep writing !

A Quick Recap
Installing WP is not difficult. You can learn by watching how-to videos at wordpress.tv.
Optimize your WP blog for search engines, for your readers & for yourself. Here are a few things to start with :-
1. Edit the permalink structure.
2. Create a robots.txt file.
3. Create a sitemap and add to Google
Webmaster tools.

4. Install the All-in-one SEO plugin.
5. Organize Categories & Tags.
6. Organize Your Images.
Add an extra layer of security to your blog by doing the following :-
1. Activate Akismet.
2. Hide Your Wordpress Folders.
3. Hide the Wordpress version.
4. Backup regularly.
5. Change the default WP username.
6. Choose a secure password.

Some marketing tips to start with : -
1. Create an RSS feed and install the feedburner feedsmith plugin.
2. Allow easy bookmarking of your content.
3. Use Google Analytics.
4. Submit your blog to directories.
5. Comment on other blogs.
6. Remember – good content is the most
important thing.

Questions ?... Contact Me
My Blog
http://www.jeetblog.com
Email
[email_address]
Twitter
http://www.twitter.com/jeetblog

THANK YOU

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How To Get Started After Installing Wordpress ( Wordcamp, Delhi )

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