Are you using the Blogger platform? Have you experienced the benefits of setting your posts to publish automatically at a later date? That’s the best advantage of using Blogger in Draft! If you prefer to use Blogger in Draft to enable you to create draft blog posts and schedule them to be published later, then this is for you!

Go to the Blogger in Draft site, and sign into your Blogger account as you normally would. Once you’re signed into Blogger in Draft, from the dashboard you’ll see the option to choose Blogger in Draft as your “default” blogging platform! From the top right hand side of the dashboard, simply check the box that indicates your preference to use Blogger in Draft as your default dashboard. That way when you go to sign into your blog you’ll automatically be in Blogger in Draft.

To learn how to schedule a blog post to be published at a later date, read our prior post for automatically publishing blog posts, from Blogger in draft - of course!

Have you set up a custom domain using the Blogger platform? Or, are you going to convert your Blogger Blogspot blog to your own domain using Blogger? If either of those questions is a “yes” for you, then you may want to check this out in your Blogger dashboard. The redirect I’m referring to here is an option that you have within your Blogger dashboard.

Once you’ve converted a Blogspot blog over to your own custom domain, you’ll want to make sure you have selected the correct option in your Blogger dashboard, for Blogger to redirect your blog. AND, you’ll want to ensure that your actions match up to the option you selected! What am I referring to? First off, it’s always nice to learn from someone’s mistake, so you don’t make the same one! I’m sharing this post with you today as a result from a goof I discovered on one of my own blogs I converted to a custom domain, utilizing the Blogger platform. You now have the opportunity to learn from my error!

First, lets take a look at what I’m referring to in your Blogger dashboard, and please note that you won’t see this option within your Blogger dashboard until either you are in the process of converting your Blogspot blog over to Blogger, or you have already finished the conversion. If you have already converted to a custom domain using Blogger, it’s not too late to change your option. Ok, let’s get started! More on Selecting Blogger Redirect for Custom Domains

Long awaited for, and finally released for your blogging pleasure… (drumroll, please!) WordPress 2.8 Baker, the stable version has been officially released, and is now ready for you! There is much to be excited about with this newest release!

Now easier than ever, you are no longer limited to the number of widgets you can use, and you have greater flexibility to select where to use them. Using the drag and drop feature of the widgets couldn’t be easier! For the developer, they’ve even added a widget api feature so you can dream up what your widget wishes desire.

Need to change or update your theme? No problem! With the new WordPress 2.8 theme browser, you won’t even need to leave your WordPress blog admin panel to view the themes available to you. Even better, is the fact that once you’ve selected the theme that gets you jazzed, you may then customize the theme colors to your liking, directly from your WordPress admin panel, and without having to know html to do it! You simply check the boxes that best represent what you want to change. It couldn’t be easier!

As I mentioned before, if you have been using Blogger for it’s widget-ready ease of use, but really want more control of your website, with features like full cpanel access etc., you must give WordPress 2.8 your full attention now! A picture is worth a thousand words, and a video is even worth more, so take less than 5 minutes and watch the WordPress 2.8 Video!

With all of that in mind, I can really say…Happy blogging!

WordPress 2.8 stable version is soon to be all the rage for WordPress users! For those of you who have been using Blogger because of the easy to use widget design and other features, you may wish to consider WordPress 2.8. as soon as the stable version is released. However, if you’re a blogger using a platform like Blogger because you prefer not to manage any Cpanel stuff etc., then WordPress will still not be for you.

For those of you who already love WordPress, or it’s growing on you, then the newest stable release of WordPress will really jazz up your Blogging! On of my favorite features about the newest release is the simplified manner in which you can make significant template changes! Way to go WordPress! As the world waits for the stable version release, for now we can take a sneak preview of some WordPress screenshots! Happy blogging!

Eventually, someone rises to the opportunity to compete against a large entity such as Google. Although they may not be a true competitor in the sense to Google, MozRank provides what I’ll refer to as “an alternative way” to determine your page rank vs Googles PageRank system, utilizing the MozRank Linkscape program, from their free SEO Tools.

As many bloggers know, their page rank was dropped by Google in 2007 from participating in PayPerPost’s program, which payed bloggers to publish advertisements in their blog posts. Unfortunately, PayPerPost did not disclose to any bloggers the potential consequences of advertising for them, creating a violation of Googles webmasters policies. For those of you who do not know, what occurred were sites being penalyzed by posting advertisements for money, utilizing the “do follow” attribute, which passed page rank to the advertisers. This resulted in many of us (yes, I included) losing page rank to our blogs. I, like many other blogger’s did not understand that we were violating any type of policy with Google, and for those (like myself) who submitted a request to Google for reconsideration, that may not have returned their page rank back to its prior status.

Although my prior paragraph here may seem like a rabbit trail, the point I’m wanting to make is that there is still hope to see your blogs having page rank, but perhaps not yet through Google. I guess you could say that MozRank is a competitor to Google’s pagerank system, although they rate things differently. Their algorithm for the page ranking must work differently, otherwise they would be violating Google’s patent for the specific manner and algorithms used when Google establishes page rank.

So, if your blog(s) experienced a penalty from Google or you lost your page rank for whatever reason, such as no longer receiving fresh backlinks, there is another resource to check your page rank. At the very least while you await for Google to re-evaluate your blog, you have something to make you feel a bit brighter!

This blog had attained a PR 3 according to Google’s page ranking system, prior to Google’s drop, and since that time I’ve been fighting the Google PageRank blues since. There were other reasons though too that I lost my page rank, which included a year away from actively posting to my blog or building links, due to significant changes on the home front. At least for now, MozRank’s Linkscape evaluation has made me feel a bit brighter these days as I checked my page rank with their beta system. If you’re experiencing the page rank blues, head on over to MozRank to check out your blogs!

There are two ways you can check your blog ranking with MozRank, using their Linkscape Beta program. The first obvious one is to check it directly from their site, and the second option is to install the page rank plugin for Firefox to see the rankings from MozRank while you’re on your blog, or any other site. To give you an idea of comparison, my blog TallSailsAdventure.com, which is currently at a PR1 is rated at PR2.67 using the MozRank Linkscape system.

Just a side note, for anyone who may be wondering, this post is NOT an advertisement for the above mentioned site, but simply something I came across and thought I would share with my readers.

Now heads up, and don’t give up on your blog, which may have lost Google PageRank, because now there is another way to evaluate your blog with an alternative page ranking system. Happy Blogging!

It takes time to develop a blog or other website, and it may seem to take forever to gain and increase blog traffic, which in turn increases people linking to your blog posts. Google Analytics provides you with greater insight to assist you with strengthening your keyword strategies for your blogs, which will result in more organic traffic and more links to your blogs. Here’s a step-by-step approach to make use of Google Analytics data to determine which keywords are bringing in your traffic, and how you can capitalize on those keywords by a proper linking strategy from your own blog.

If you haven’t already done so, you will need to establish your Google Analytics account. If you already have one, login to your account and let’s begin a keyword linking strategy based on your Google Analytics results!

Step 1. LOGIN TO YOUR GOOGLE ANALYTICS DASHBOARD

Step 2. SELECT THE FIRST BLOG YOU NEED TO BOOST TRAFFIC WITH, BY CLICKING ON “VIEW REPORT” FOR THAT BLOG

Step 3. SELECT THE “TRAFFIC SOURCES” LINK AS HIGHLIGHTED BELOW

Traffic Sources

Step 4. SELECT “KEYWORDS” FROM THE TRAFFIC SOURCES MENU AS HIGHLIGHTED BELOW

Keywords

Step 5. LOCATE THE LIST OF KEYWORDS FROM THE LOWER RIGHT AREA OF YOUR ANALYTICS PAGE WHERE YOU SEE THIS HEADING

Step 6. From the list of your keywords, select ONE of the keywords or keyword phrases which best represent your targeted traffic goal for your blog. Be sure to wisely choose the phrase or keyword that best represents your sites niche! Once you identify which keyword or key phraseto use, you have one of two choices to make.

A. Write a new blog post (fresh posts are always good!).

B. Or, from the Analytics list select one of your top landing blog posts which best represents the keyword or key phrase you selected.

Step 7A. (If you selected option A above) Write a new blog post and be sure to utilize the keyword, or keyword phrase EXACTLY as shown in the Analytics report several times within that blog post, and utilize the keyword or keyword phrase for the first words in your blog post title. From the keyword or keyword phrase, create at least one hyperlink to an existing blog post you wrote earlier about the same keyword. Publish the new blog post and locate the new blog post permalink. Go on to step 8 below.

Step 7B. (If you selected option B above) Review your existing blog post you chose to use. If necessary, edit the blog post to ensure you have made good use of the keyword or key phrase you chose to use from the Analytics report. Be sure to utilize the keyword, or keyword phrase EXACTLY as shown in the Analytics report several times within that blog post, editing the post if necessary. From the keyword or keyword phrase, create at least one hyperlink to an existing blog post you wrote earlier about the same keyword. Publish the revised blog post and locate the new blog post permalink. Note: DO NOT change the blog post title of your existing posts involved in this strategy. Now go on to step 8 below.

Step 8. Add a link within your blog sidebar from the same blog, to the new blog post permalink, or to the existing blog post permalink, whichever option above you went with. Be sure to use the keyword or keyword phrase for the link text (hypertext), and again EXACTLY as shown in your Google Analytics report. If done correctly, the keyword link to your blog post will really pay off by bringing in more traffic from organic search results.

Step 9. Moniter your future Google Analytics reports to see how this strategy has increased your traffic, and sit back and enjoy the brighter future your blog will have.

Step 10. If this information has helped you, please comment here to let me know! Thanks! Happy blogging!

Blogging on WordPress allows you to access and utilize custom plugins to customize your blog. Today I just downloaded some plugins and I’m experimenting with this plugin called “External Permalinks.” Be sure to check out the External Permalinks plugin for WordPress to see if it will provide you with a solution to one of your ideas.

I liked the concept of the plugin, but I was having some challenges with getting it to work on this site. Perhaps I was having a conflict with one of my other plugins, or my theme. Not sure which is the case, but for now I had to disable the plugin until I can take the time to troubleshoot the issue.