Steve Wagenheim’s Home Business Blog

Let me start out by saying this. Whenever you read an article by somebody…anybody…especially if they’re spouting off about something that they feel is good, bad or whatever, look for the agenda because everybody has one…yes, even me. My agenda is to sell stuff. That’s how I make a living and I don’t apologize for it. But when I share information, you can damn well be sure that it’s at least accurate and not something that I made up JUST to sell stuff. So my latest rebuttal is to this nonsense that using free WordPress themes is a bad idea. That is just horse hockey.

The author in question is Siobahn Ambrose. The author points out several problems. The two main ones, at least in my opinion are comparability with the latest WordPress version and hidden code. Let me address the first one.

WordPress is meticulous about its free theme listing. Every single theme clearly shows when the last time it was that it was updated and with what version of WordPress is it compatible with. So all you have to do is a little reading and you should have no problem finding a theme that will work for your version of WordPress. So this is a non issue, at least if you’re getting your themes directly from the WordPress directory.

Okay, let me address the hidden code. WordPress also checks each theme for anything that might be malicious. The only code you’re likely to run into is one that has the maker of the theme in the footer and maybe a link back to their site. Certainly they’re entitled to that much for providing you with a theme that you didn’t have to pay for. Aside from that, nothing in that theme is going to do you or your site any harm.

What about ranking? There is a contention that free themes don’t rank well. When people tell you this, again, it is with an agenda to sell you a premium theme that you probably don’t need. Take a look at the end of the article and see if they’re recommending some premium theme that is going to cost you big bucks.

Personally, I have been using free WordPress themes forever and have never had a problem, nor do I foresee having any problems as long as I get them from a reputable site. And yes, they do exist. But you have to do a little research first in order to find them. Contacting the site owner to see if they respond is also a good idea.

Bottom line is this. There is NO reason why you can’t run a WordPress blog with a free theme.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Sick and tired of spinning your wheels and wasting hours of your time looking for JUST the right plugins and themes for your WordPress Blog? Check out WordPress Confidential and get your hands on 100 must have plugins and 25 killer themes (all FREE) at the click of a mouse. Pick up your copy at http://www.stevewagenheim.com/wordpressconfidential/index.html TODAY!

Every once in a while, a thread pops up at the Warrior Forum that asks a really good question. This morning, one such question smacked me right in the face and it really got me thinking about this issue. If you change the design of your blog, something I have done several times, is it risky? Good question. It wasn’t something I really thought about until now. Anyway, keep reading to get my personal take on this issue. Naturally, you will want to do your own testing.

There are essentially two concerns when changing the design of your blog. The one concern is with rankings. The other concern is with the retention of your readership. So let’s take each of these concerns one at a time starting with rankings since that is the one that bloggers are most concerned with.

The truth is, nobody knows what changing a blog design will do to rankings. They may go up, down, or be totally unaffected. Remember, we’re not changing the content of the blog itself…just the way that it looks. Theoretically, a search engine, such as Google, shouldn’t care what your blog looks like as long as the content is relevant. But since nobody really knows everything that goes into Google’s algorithm in determining rankings, by changing your blog design, you are essentially taking a risk. How big a risk depends on how relevant design itself is to rankings. Those are the facts and can’t be disputed until Google actually comes out and says that design DOES play a major role and changing it WILL affect your rankings.

But let’s forget about rankings for now. What about your long time readers? Sure, the people first coming to your blog won’t even know it’s a new design. They’ll evaluate this design on its own…good or bad. But the people who have been coming to your blog for a while, what do you think might happen if they see a new blog design? Do you think it’s not possible that they might think that they’re in the wrong place? After all, what they’re looking at isn’t what they’re used to looking at. So, it’s quite conceivable that they’ll see the new design and navigate away from your blog because they DO think they’re in the wrong place. On that level alone, changing your blog design IS risky.

Having said all that, should you do it? Well, it depends. Is your current design ugly? Are you not getting much traffic? Is your bounce rate high? If you answered yes to those questions, then quite honestly, you have nothing to lose by changing the design. But if you’re blog is number one in the SERPs, you’re getting 10,000 visitors a day and you’re making six figures a year, changing your blog design could be suicide.

So whatever you decide, decide wisely.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Sick and tired of spinning your wheels and wasting hours of your time looking for JUST the right plugins and themes for your WordPress Blog? Check out WordPress Confidential and get your hands on 100 must have plugins and 25 killer themes (all FREE) at the click of a mouse. Pick up your copy at http://www.stevewagenheim.com/wordpressconfidential/index.html TODAY!

Well, this argument has gone on long enough so it’s about time to put this puppy to bed once and for all. A lot of people ask what the BEST CMS platform to use is. Now, when they say “best” they’re not just referring to the one that’s most powerful or easiest to use. They’re also referring to the one that’s going to get them ranked the highest in the SERPs. And THAT’S where there is a TON of misinformation going around. So, what I am going to do is answer this question on two levels because each level is important to understand. Hopefully, after you’re done reading this article, you’ll have a decent idea of what platform is best for YOU.

If you’ve been doing your homework and researching the top CMS platforms, you’ve probably found that the ones that are most used and recommended include WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, Expression Engine, Textpattern, CushyCMS, RadiantCMS and Contao. Great, but what’s the difference between all of these? Well, actually, there is a lot of difference between many of them. Unfortunately, those differences are beyond the scope of this article. Point is, to a degree, each one either does something different OR is different in the way it operates. This means a different learning curve for each platform. And yes, some are much more intuitive and easy than others. And that’s going to differ from person to person. Some marketers think WordPress is easy while others think it’s a pain in the backside.

So the first thing you have to ask yourself when choosing a CMS platform is this. “How much effort do I want to put into learning this thing?” If the answer is “not much” then you might want to look into one that the majority of people say is the easiest. Granted, that doesn’t mean YOU are going to agree, but the chances of you actually getting through the learning curve are greater if you go with the majority.

The next thing you want to ask yourself is this. “What do I want this CMS platform to do?” Now most of the top ones pretty much do relatively the same thing, but not quite. You may find some platforms don’t do the specific thing that YOU want…at least not easily. So you need to research the abilities of each platform.

Finally, and this is really the most important thing of all, there is the ranking you will get from each platform. There are two answers to this. And no, I’m not hedging my bets here. There first answer is that there are NO differences between each platform as far as how well you’ll rank in the SERPs. I’ve seen all different kinds of platforms ranked number one at Google. So any platform can get you a high ranking. It’s what you put on it that makes the difference…up to a point.

And that’s where the second answer comes in. Some platforms, such as WordPress, have better built in SEO tools that will help the site rank better. For example, with WordPress, you have plugins that will do a lot of SEO work for you. But you still have to install these AND you have to make sure you configure them to get the most out of them. If not, WordPress is really no better than any other platform.

Bottom line is this. When choosing a platform, take a look at what your needs are first and see if that platform is going to fill those needs with relative ease. If so, use it. There are no magic buttons that will get you to the top of the SERPs. That only comes from hard work.

What a novel concept…work.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Sick and tired of spinning your wheels and wasting hours of your time looking for JUST the right plugins and themes for your WordPress Blog? Check out WordPress Confidential and get your hands on 100 must have plugins and 25 killer themes (all FREE) at the click of a mouse. Pick up your copy at http://www.stevewagenheim.com/wordpressconfidential/index.html TODAY!

Okay, so you’re a blogger and you’re setting up your first blog and you’re looking for a theme. Essentially, you’re looking for something that looks good, at least to you. You weed through the WordPress themes directory spot something you like and install it. You’re done. But are you? Did you choose the right theme? For that matter, does it even matter? A lot of people seem to think it doesn’t. Well, this kind of thinking can land you in a lot of hot water. Themes DO matter…a lot. This article explains why.

Naturally, how a theme looks (good or bad) is, in a lot of ways, subjective. What one person may call a nice looking theme, another person might think looks like garbage. You’re never going to please everybody with your choice of theme. However, there is one thing you DO want to keep in mind when choosing a theme. You want it to fit with the topic of your blog as closely as possible. I’m going to give you an extreme example so that you understand what I mean.

Let’s say you have a blog on health related issues. Don’t you think that maybe you should use a theme that has health related designs on it? Maybe stock photos of doctors and/or nurses. Maybe some medical symbols. Maybe photos of natural herbs. You get the picture, right? Well, what would somebody think if they went to your “health” blog and saw balloons all over the place, or photos of tanks and cannons? They’d think that your blog was a joke.

Now I understand, the above is a very extreme example and I’d like to think that nobody is that dense as to put tanks and cannons on a blog about health. But trust me, I have seen some strange things. Point is, even subtle inconsistencies can turn off your target market. It doesn’t take much. If just one thing about the theme is off, such as the color (do you want a black theme for a health blog?) it can give visitors the wrong idea.

At the very least, you should go with a theme that is neutral so that it could go with anything. However, look itself is not all that makes up a theme.

Next, there is functionality. Let’s say you want your blog to have some nice Amazon ads on the sidebar. Well, you better pick a theme that has an Amazon widget or something compatible. If you want to display rotating banners, you better pick a theme with that kind of functionality. Again, themes are more than just look.

So when picking the theme for YOUR blog, make sure that it not only looks the part but that it has the functionality that YOU need to do the things that YOU want to do.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Sick and tired of spinning your wheels and wasting hours of your time looking for JUST the right plugins and themes for your WordPress Blog? Check out WordPress Confidential and get your hands on 100 must have plugins and 25 killer themes (all FREE) at the click of a mouse. Pick up your copy at http://www.stevewagenheim.com/wordpressconfidential/index.html TODAY!

Okay, let me start off by saying that this is not really a rant. But I am sick and tired of marketers jumping on every bright and shiny thing without really doing their homework on it. WordPress is a perfect example of what I’m talking about. Lots of new marketers immediately jump on putting up a WordPress blog without really considering if this is something they should be doing or if the platform is really all it’s cracked up to be. No, I’m not automatically knocking it, but blindly using something is foolish. So let’s take a real good look at this blogging platform and see if it truly IS all it’s cracked up to be.

Let’s start with the actual foundation. It’s open source. On the plus side, this means that anybody and their grandmother can create themes and plugins that can be really useful to the end user. On the minus said, this also means that anybody and their grandmother can find ways to hack the heck out of your blog. And don’t think that these blogs DON’T get hacked and compromised. They do, which is why constant updates are needed. I don’t remember ever having to update my ebook delivery system that I use.

What about the functionality? Well, in all honesty, it’s not like it’s the holy grail. Yes, it does do some neat things. But believe me, there are platforms out there that are much more powerful. Oh, but I guess I should mention one very important thing. WordPress is free. And that makes it VERY attractive to the end user. Want something more robust? You’re going to have to pay big bucks for it.

And don’t get me wrong. WordPress can be VERY powerful. In fact, there are some themes and plugins that will allow you to run a membership site, forum or even a total ecommerce solution off of this platform. That’s pretty impressive stuff.

Then of course, there is the look. Well, let’s be honest. The stock WordPress themes look like crap. And even a lot of the themes in their standard download section aren’t all that great. Fortunately, these third party developers (the same ones that can hack the heck out of your blog) have created some really beautiful themes for your blog. Some of them are downright wicked.

My point is, WordPress, in itself, is fine. It’s no holy grail. But what third party developers have brought to the project is nothing short of astonishing. And THAT is where this platform REALLY shines. No offense to the creators of it. But you really owe these third party creators a lot of thanks.

Bottom line is this. If you need a blogging platform and don’t want to spend big bucks on something custom, WordPress will pretty much do whatever you want…provided you get the right themes and plugins AND update regularly. Because like I said, there are plenty of folks out there who can’t wait to turn YOUR blog into Swiss cheese.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Sick and tired of spinning your wheels and wasting hours of your time looking for JUST the right plugins and themes for your WordPress Blog? Check out WordPress Confidential and get your hands on 100 must have plugins and 25 killer themes (all FREE) at the click of a mouse. Pick up your copy at http://www.stevewagenheim.com/wordpressconfidential/index.html TODAY!

Okay, let me start off by saying that I really don’t like pointless hypothetical questions. WordPress DOES exist. You might as well ask what if the Internet, computers or even electricity didn’t exist. The point is, it does exist so hypothetical questions involving things of that nature are really kind of pointless. However, for the sake of argument, since this question WAS brought up at the Warrior Forum, I’m going to provide an answer that is a little less sarcastic than the one I gave there.

For the purposes of answering this question, we’re actually going to assume that all similar platforms to WordPress, such as Blogger and Joomla, also don’t exist. In other words, the only way to get any kind of site online is to code it the old fashioned way…with HTML and some PHP if need be. Remember, we want to have the same functionality as these CMS sites. Okay, are we clear there? Good…let’s continue.

So, we’ve decided that the only thing to do is write some code. But what if you’re not a coder? What if you know nothing about HTML or PHP or any of that stuff? You know what you want to do. You want a site where you can add content to it via some sort of input system and have that content automatically added to the site and formatted correctly. Each post would therefore have to be saved to a database so that the site is not static.

Well, you have two choices. Choice number one is to hire somebody to create the site for you. You’d probably go to Elance or some other freelancing site and look for a coder. You’d have the site custom made just for you. That’s choice one. However, choice two is what I would do. And this is why I’m a marketer.

I would think to myself that if I want something like this, there’d have to be other marketers who would also want a CMS system. So I would have a system created for me to sell to others. Or, I’d do what the WordPress people did…give it away for nothing. Trust me, these people still make their money…plenty of it.

Point is, where something doesn’t exist, the ideas are always there. The thing that separates the successful from the unsuccessful marketers is implementing these ideas. Think of something you want, see if it’s available and if not, create it and sell it. If you sit down and think about all the things YOU would like as a marketer, I am sure you’d find plenty that YOU could create yourself, even if you have to hire somebody to do it.

So, if WordPress didn’t exist, life would go on.

And eventually, WordPress, or something similar, WOULD exist.

It’s just a matter of time and a thinking mind.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim
CLICK HERE to discover how to put together an authority site that will ultimately bring you in a steady income for years and years to come with very little upkeep

By now, if you’re a blogger, you’ve probably heard about Zombie Blogging. If not, don’t worry, by the time you’re done reading this article, you’ll have an idea of what it is. But the question is this, is Zombie Blogging dead (no pun intended) or is it alive and well? Let’s take a look.

The reason I bring this up is because, if you head on over to the Warrior Forum, there is a thread that’s been started in regard to Zombie Blogging about how, if you’re using Blogger blogs to do this, after you hit four blogs, you get contacted by Google asking you to verify your phone number. Now, by itself, this is no big deal. I also understand why they’re doing this. They want to cut down on spam blogs. But it seems that if you don’t confirm, your blogs get zapped, even if they appear to be completely legit. Also, it seems you need to have a Gmail account and more than two of these, you’re on their radar.

What puzzles me completely about this whole thing is this. I have a Blogger account and I have 34 blogs on it. I have never been asked to confirm my phone number and don’t even have a Gmail account. So I have no idea what’s going on with these confirmations. Maybe it’s something new. Either way, if you do this by the book, there is no reason for your blogs to get zapped.

Okay, so what is Zombie Blogging? Well, in a nutshell, it’s a way to have content drip fed into your blog each day so that the blog builds up authority over time, then it ranks well, and THEN, after it’s established, you monetize it. If you want to know what the whole process is, just pick up a copy. I’ve read it and it’s excellent. It’s also an amusing read.

When dealing with Blogger and Google, you have to play by THEIR rules. Trust me, their rules are not all that horrible. All they want is good content on their search engine. They don’t want the kind of crap that a lot of people put up. Those who do it, you know what I’m talking about. Be nice to Google and they’ll be nice to you.

Anyway, Zombie Blogging is alive and well and I am sure that, used properly, it will continue to survive for a very long time.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim.

Want a great companion to Zombie Blogging? Pick up a copy of my Hot Trends at http://www.stevewagenheim.com/hottrends/index.html and make some easy money without spending a DIME.

One of the great things about WordPress is that there are tons of free themes you can use for it. In fact, I use all free themes myself. So when the question came up today, whether or not one needed a premium WordPress theme, I had to think long and hard about what would make me want to get one. In this article, I am going to cover several reasons for possibly getting a premium theme.

At the top of the list is functionality of the blog itself. Is there something that you want your blog to be able to do that can’t be done with a free theme? Maybe there is a plugin that only works with a specific theme and that theme isn’t free. In a case like this, where I needed to be able to do something, and couldn’t design it myself, I’d get a premium theme.

Next on my list is visitor experience. Is the premium theme going to look so nice that it’s going to keep visitors at my blog longer? Will it make them read my articles more? Will it ultimately lead them to become a buyer of one of my products more so than if I had a free theme? In other words, will the premium theme add to my bottom line? If not, is it worth getting?

Finally, there is the consideration of how much easier it’s going to make my life. Will the premium theme do that or will it give me extra problems to worry about? Is the theme going to be easy to maintain? Sometimes getting something ends up making things worse. And the worst thing of all is getting a theme that isn’t compatible with the version of WordPress you’re using. And if you have to upgrade, will that upgrade break some of the plugins you have? The last thing you want to do is buy a theme and then find out you can’t use it without going through a lot of heck in the process.

So there you have it. These are the things that I would have to consider before getting a premium WordPress theme. Ultimately, it comes down to the bottom line. If it doesn’t help my bottom line in any way at all, either through improved functionality or through getting people to stay at my site longer, then all it is, is an added expense.

And I don’t need more of them.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim
CLICK HERE to discover how to put together an authority site that will ultimately bring you in a steady income for years and years to come with very little upkeep

Every once in a while, a great debate pops up over at the good old Warrior Forum. Today, it’s about blog comments left by other marketers. And believe me, I use the word “marketers” here very loosely. Some of these people, in my opinion, are nothing more than robots. But that’s another issue altogether. Point is, what exactly IS a legit blog comment? Everybody has their opinion. What you are about to read is mine. Take it for what it’s worth to you.

But first, we need to backtrack just a little bit to understand why this is even coming up now. Seems that there are these services and software programs that make it very easy for a person to take one comment and plaster them all over the Internet onto thousands of blogs. These comments range from “Nice article” to “Really love your blog” and everything in between. You can usually tell the auto posted comments because they are very generic and add nothing to the overall conversation of the blog itself. In my opinion, these are NOT legit comments.

Now, there are some who would argue that since they are no outright spam, like “Buy this here” then there is nothing wrong with them and should be allowed to remain on the blog as long as they don’t link to sites that one would find offensive. I don’t agree. These comments, as I stated, add nothing of value to the blog. Why should I reward somebody with a backlink when they most likely didn’t even visit my blog in the first place? If you want link juice from MY efforts, then the least you can do is visit my blog and post a comment that reflects that you actually read my article. Is that so much to ask?

No doubt this battle will go on between those who want to preserve some integrity on their blog and those who simply want to exploit those blogs for their own needs. I’ve even see people argue that posting these comments is no different from submitting an article to hundreds of article directories. The difference is this. The article directories WANT your article. The blog owner does NOT want your irrelevant comment.

Anyway, those are my views on this subject. What side of the fence are YOU on?

I’d really like to know.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim
CLICK HERE to discover how to put together an authority site that will ultimately bring you in a steady income for years and years to come with very little upkeep

This question comes up a lot from new bloggers who want to use WordPress. Should they put all their posts on one page or use multiple pages? Well, the answer to the question isn’t a simple one. It really depends on the purpose of your blog. So the best way to answer the question is with a couple of examples. This article will give you two excellent ones starting with my own blog.

At first, I setup a WordPress blog simply to post articles and nothing more. So I started with one page. Why? Well, I wanted people to read the most relevant articles first when they got there, so there was no point in breaking them up into separate pages. The most recent ones would appear at the top of the blog. Besides, by designating categories for each article (make money online, copywriting, article writing, etc.) if people wanted to look up certain articles, they could do so by category, listed on the right hand side of the blog.

However, as time went on, I realized that I wanted to do more. I wanted to have a page where people could check out all my products. I didn’t want to include them on the main article page because they’d end up getting lost in the soup with each article that I added. So I created a separate page for products, listing them in the order that I wanted. This would be a static page whereas the article page would change with each new post. So in this case, I did want multiple pages.

But a better example of multiple pages is the site of a friend of mine who is a band promoter. He needed a blog where he could have one page with articles about recent concerts he promoted and how they went, another page that showed the dates of upcoming concerts, another page with items to buy such as posters, CDs, and so on and another page of odds and ends that didn’t seem to fit anywhere else. This is quite common for a blog that has many different things going on.

So think of your blog, not like a blog, but like a regular site. If you were going to create a regular static HTML site using Dreamweaver or whatever, how many different pages would you want? The answer to that question will give you the answer to the question of how many pages you want for your WordPress blog.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

CLICK HERE to discover how to put together an authority site that will ultimately bring you in a steady income for years and years to come with very little upkeep