Lesson 2: The 4 Easiest Ways To Preparing Your Blog For Search Engines…
by Anik Singal on April 17th, 2008 | Blogging | 205 Comments »
Well, I have to say - Rosalind and I are very proud, the response has been incredible - over 150 blogs submitted and still climbing! The best part is that many of you (if not most) have actually taken the time to get STARTED (so you didn’t wait for tomorrow). As promised, here is the next lesson AND the next assignment…
Getting The Search Engines To Love Your Blog…
In order to teach you how to optimize your blog for the search engines, we HAD to make 2 PRE-videos (total of 3 videos) - so we basically had to break it down into more steps. Today’s video watching may take a bit more time, but the overall steps are pretty easy. So, turn off your e-mail, put your cell phone on silent, close the door and start learning and implementing right away…
Video Part 1: How To Download Plugins And Upload To Your Blog…
Step 1: Click here to play this video - It will open in a new window…
Video Part 2: Setting Up The Right Permissions w/ FREE FTP Software…
Step 2: Click here to play this video - It will open in a new window…
Video Part 3: The 4 Easiest Ways To Make Your Blog Search Engine Friendly!
Step 3: Click here to play this video - It will open in a new window…
Homework Assignment #2…
If you still have not done Assignment #1 - you know we were not kidding. Don’t fall behind, do it right away and you can easily catch-up. The assignment today is that you need to get your blog SEO ready - download and install the appropriate plug-ins and make sure you have activated permalinks, etc…
In the video, Rosalind talks about a PING list you need - click here to get it!
Leave a comment below and tell us about your progress!
Tags: Blogging, search engines, seo
hey everyone, also remember that SEO is a big reason why you don’t want to build your blog on some external system and then try to move it to your own domain - do all that upfront, or else ALL SE indexing goes away…
[Reply]
Erin reply on April 21, 2008 1:52 pm:
Hi…thanks for the videos…can I do all of this if I have to use the free blog at .org?
I don’t think I can use WordPress on my godaddy hosted site…but I can use the free blog through WordPress. Can I make these changes and load to my site still?
Still working on my primary site so I can direct traffic to it from the blog.
Thanks again!
Erin
[Reply]
Staci reply on April 21, 2008 3:42 pm:
Hi Erin,
I am on godaddy also and have just found that you can subscribe to your blog so that your posts are imported through an RSS feed. Here are the instructions:
1. From the Import Entries page, select WordPress, and then click Next Step.
2. Enter your database connection information.
Server/Hostname
Server name or Host name where the database is located.
Database
Name of the database you want to import.
Username
User name for the account where the database is located.
Password
Password for the account where the database is located.
Table Prefix
WordPress Table Prefix. Unless you have changed it, this is generally wp_.
3. Select a default status for the new entries.
Draft
All imported entries are labeled as drafts until you manually publish them.
Published
All imported entries are automatically published to your blogcast.
4. Select whether you want to include Comments or Trackbacks in your import.
5. Click OK.
You can locate this same info on the site in the Help Center. Hope that helps.
Staci
[Reply]
Billy Burwick reply on April 22, 2008 11:28 am:
Thanks for the Great tips.
Namaste
[Reply]
Steve Sharpe reply on April 28, 2008 3:24 pm:
Excellent videos. The Search Engine friendly tips are awesome. Thanks a lot.
[Reply]
A script made Flash 9 run very very slowly.
[Reply]
admin reply on April 17, 2008 8:22 pm:
hmm I’ll check into that - not seeing the problem anywhere on our side…
Anik Singal
[Reply]
Johnnie reply on April 18, 2008 2:49 pm:
I have the same message whcih says if it continues to run, computer nay beome unresponsive.
[Reply]
Kathy Pop reply on April 19, 2008 5:48 pm:
I got the messege too, but just ignored it and had no problems at all. I’m using Avant Browser, by the way.
Bill reply on April 17, 2008 9:22 pm:
I got the same thing here on every video– first video
crash FireFox after the alter came up from Flash.
[Reply]
Bill reply on April 17, 2008 9:25 pm:
Sorry about the spelling mistakes
Should have been “Crashed” and “Alert”
[Reply]
Jon Roussel reply on April 19, 2008 6:59 pm:
I got a script error message also Causing Falsh 8 to run slowly in IE 7 Jon
Hi Ros and Anik,
I uploaded the All in One SEO Pack and made the changes as shown in the video. It was very easy and worked as shown.
However, the theme I used for my WP blog has a place to enter tags so over the 3 months my blog has been up, I have been added a bunch of tags each time I post.
Are tags the same as Keywords? Is there such a thing as entering too many? I think I have overdone this–should I remove some?
Is there an optimal number of key words? Or should I just enter the three as Ros showed in the SEO and not enter any tags on the other form that shows up in my theme’s editor?
Thanks,
Donna
[Reply]
admin reply on April 17, 2008 8:26 pm:
Donna,
I like to not go over 3 or so…now the “tags” feature already in your template MAY not be technorati tags.
Rosalind likes to make sure that Technorati knows cuz they can send traffic in time…
I’ll let Rosalind add more here…
Anik Singal
[Reply]
Rosalind Gardner reply on April 21, 2008 9:26 am:
Hi Donna,
Looking at your posts prior to the All in One SEO pack, you were ending up with huge keyword strings in your METAs… check out the source on http://telemeditationretreats.com/blog/manage-stress-with-meditation/ as compared to the more recent http://telemeditationretreats.com/blog/manage-stress-with-meditation/
Whether you are using Tags that comes with WP or the All in One SEO pack keyword entry blank, the more recent ones are much better.
Cheers,
Ros
[Reply]
Deb reply on April 26, 2008 4:10 pm:
Ros, thanks so much for the great info. May I make a suggestion? Please slow down a bit with your speaking on the videos…too fast. Thanks again.
[Reply]
Anik Singal reply on April 26, 2008 4:14 pm:
Hey Deb,
I’m trying very hard to slow myself down, thanks for the suggestions - it helps to get that reminder…
Hope it didn’t make it too hard to follow along?
Anik Singal
I love that this lesson is about SEO because SEO is one of the biggest reasons that I am adding a blog to my site.
[Reply]
admin reply on April 17, 2008 8:27 pm:
Thanks Tricia! Blogs really do help in SEO, I already have rankings on first page for MANY keywords with new blogs started 3 days ago…
Anik Singal
[Reply]
Hi Rosalind, Great lessons again. Thank you!
Does it matter that my attributes box had the number 765 (I think it was that) and that ALL the boxes were already checked including the ‘execute’ boxes? I went ahead and changed it to the beast, er I mean 666 like you showed us anyway.
Thanks again.
Steve
[Reply]
Rosalind Gardner reply on April 18, 2008 9:45 am:
Hi Steve,
Perhaps that was the default attribute set for FileZilla on installation… I honestly can’t remember now.
But good that you went ahead and changed to ‘the beast’ as you call it. We don’t want to set permissions any higher than necessary.
Cheers,
Ros
[Reply]
I guess I’m toast at this point. My web designers will not allow me FTP access!
[Reply]
admin reply on April 17, 2008 8:30 pm:
Phil,
Don’t they work for you buddy
Just ask THEM to do this - it takes 10 seconds for them.
Anik Singal
[Reply]
Hi Rosalind,
The lesson on permissions was easy to follow. Are we changing the permissions to make design changes or are there also other reasons? Will future lessons show us how to change the design of the blog after we do this? And can we safely change the design of an existing blog that has a lot of content?
Thanks,
Donna
[Reply]
admin reply on April 17, 2008 8:31 pm:
Donna,
Dead-on…if you want to add things on your page and alter your templates, you need rights to be able to edit it.
Anik Singal
[Reply]
I had already used a free template to design my sites. So the attributes appear to have already been changed. Is this typical? Should I go in and check anyway?
I am loving this. thank you so much!
[Reply]
admin reply on April 17, 2008 8:31 pm:
Claudia,
So you were using permalinks, etc..?
Anik Singal
[Reply]
Claudia reply on April 18, 2008 2:22 am:
I said this because I did NOT have the text at the bottom of the style sheet saying that I did not have permission to write. I thought since I had changed templates that this may have been taken care of.
However, I use DreamWeaver and so followed the video to go in and set the permissions to 666 for the themes and the htaccess. So I’m all set and eagerly awaiting the next assignment. I have added another question below though. lol
[Reply]
THANK YOU SO MUCH!
This is really awesome. I am so glad that I am only about 3 weeks into my blog life, or I would have been SOOOOO frustrated! Guess what? My privacy settings were set to BLOCK search engines - hommm, I wonder why I haven’t had any traffic? THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!
Can’t wait until tomorrow!
[Reply]
admin reply on April 17, 2008 8:32 pm:
You’re welcome!! The next lesson comes out on Saturday
But we’ll do some blog reviews tomorrow…
Anik Singal
[Reply]
Very Good Stuff Doing this is really easy Keep up the great lessons very valuable to all the folks
[Reply]
Hi Rosalind,
I’ve had my blog up for a short time. I like the video series because I was stuck at what to do. The videos are absolutely great.
I haven’t done much with my blog because I really don’t know much in the way of working on it.
Thanks,
Ted Marlett
[Reply]
Rosalind Gardner reply on April 18, 2008 8:59 am:
Hi Ted,
You’ve done great so far. Looks like you’ve got a new 3-column template with 2 right sidebars. I like that look. And depending on what you wanted to do, we’ll probably be covering that information during the course.
Cheers,
Ros
[Reply]
Thanks for the ping list. I only had 3 services on my blog. I had no idea there were so many. Talk about backlinks. I only thought I knew how to set up my blogs. Keep it coming!
[Reply]
Rosalind Gardner reply on April 18, 2008 8:59 am:
Hey Clint,
Our pleasure on the ping list and we’ll definitely keep it coming!
Cheers,
Ros
[Reply]
Got a problem… Using the newest version 2.5 of WP and your
/%postname%/ tip doesn’t work.
Part 2 Where do we get the list of ping sites?
Bill
[Reply]
Rosalind Gardner reply on April 17, 2008 10:22 pm:
Hi Bill,
I was using WP 2.5 when I made the video, so the reason /%postname%/ may not work for you (clicking on the new title will go to a ‘Page not found’) is if you don’t have permissions set properly on your files.
Please recheck and let us know.
Cheers,
Ros
[Reply]
Bill reply on April 18, 2008 7:09 am:
Thanks Ros, but I think I have set them all to 777.
(All meaning php’s)can you give me a file name to check?
Just for FYI: I’m a geek since the 80’s, but never had an
interest in blogs, so now in my 60’s I’m learning new tricks.
Thanks
Bill
[Reply]
Rosalind Gardner reply on April 18, 2008 9:22 am:
Hi Bill,
It’s the .htaccess file that needs to be CHMOD 666 for the postname functions to be changed. If you don’t see it in you main /blog/ folder, you’ll find it under the root.
Cheers,
Ros
Bill reply on April 18, 2008 11:14 am:
I’ve checked from the root all the way into the blog
folders — No .htaccess file found.
So what’s ‘Plan B’
Kathy Pop reply on April 19, 2008 6:00 pm:
be very careful w/ permissions set to 777, only do it temporarily, make sure you change them afterwards. It’s a BIG security issue if left that way.
Roland Varduhn reply on April 17, 2008 10:31 pm:
Hi Bill,
The link is under the last video …
http://www.blogclassroom.com/ping-list.html
and the postname permalink should work!?
Happy Blogging
Roland
[Reply]
Bill reply on April 18, 2008 7:11 am:
THANKS Roland!!!!
Found it!!!
Installed it to-o-o-o-o-o
Bill
[Reply]
None of the assignment two videos worked for me.
[Reply]
None of the assignment two videos work for me as well…HELP…I have my blog ready to go if I could get the class to work…..
[Reply]
Bill reply on April 18, 2008 7:15 am:
Hey Guys,
Not sure, but you might want to check and see if you
have the latest version of Flash… Might be something
like 9.125.x, but not sure.
Bill
[Reply]
I was pretty impressed that I had already worked out a few things by myself prior to watching the video such as creating the permalinks and installing the SEO all in one pack. I did get one really handy hint from the video and that from seeing what other plugins you have installed. I have been looking for a plugin that makes it easy to limit your posts with the more tag and I see you use one called Limit Posts, thanks.
[Reply]
Rosalind Gardner reply on April 18, 2008 9:47 am:
Hi Rachel,
Oh ya. I’ve got a whole LOT of nifty plugins that I’ll be sharing with the group… and researching more every day. No doubt you’ll find a few more that you like and can use.
Cheers,
Ros
[Reply]
In regards to the SEO plug in…
what is the difference between the HTML Meta Keywords field, HTML Meta Description field,TITLE tags field that are already under the post entry window
vs. the new SEO All in One pack Title, Description and Keywords?
It seems redundant. Shall I just ignore those boxes?
[Reply]
Jason reply on April 18, 2008 7:10 am:
Your browser or host may be caching the pages, so you are viewing an old version of the page. Have you tried restarting the browser or clearing any cached files?
Super Freestyle Motocross
[Reply]
Rosalind Gardner reply on April 18, 2008 9:41 am:
Hi Claudia,
If it wasn’t a caching issue, (which I also suspect it was) then you’ve got a super-duper version 2.5 that I haven’t seen yet. In that case, I’d get rid of the plugin and just use what’s there. But remember, you’d have to go back and re-enter the meta tags that you’ve already done.
Cheers,
Ros
[Reply]
Claudia reply on April 18, 2008 2:52 pm:
hi Ros and Jason,
No this is not a chaching issue and Im on version 2.3.3 Here is a screen capture of the bottom of my write an entry page.
http://thestylishmom.com/temp-page/
C
[Reply]
Rosalind Gardner reply on April 19, 2008 1:50 am:
Hi Claudia,
I’m not seeing the screen cap there. Get a Page not Found error.
Ros
Claudia reply on April 19, 2008 5:19 am:
thought you went to bed… lol I took it down Check it now. I reposted it. Same link
Roz and Anik,
Your instructions easy to follow so far.
ONE THING THOUGH…!
Having done the adjustment to the Permalinks… my first 2 Posts were not affected.
I had re-names Hello World to Hello BlueHost but URL did not change. On second post the URL shows the figure “4″ which is the ID number instead of “The Olympics”.
Seems strange - but true.
Can you give reasons please?
(My link here goes to my blog)
[Reply]
Rosalind Gardner reply on April 18, 2008 9:34 am:
Hi John,
Because I can’t see what happened from your WP Admin panel, my best guess is that because those 2 posts already had title ’slugs’ when you changed the permalinks and then you changed the title, Wordpress won’t change the slug to reflect the change.
Try changing the title (temporarily) on one of the other posts and see whether the ’slug’ itself changes.
Cheers,
Ros
[Reply]
Great, thank you so much for your very useful instructions. As a complete newbie to blogging (I’ve read about it, but not actually done it) through your videos, I’ve just managed to get a blogsite up for my ski group after 2 years of procrastination! Yvonne x
[Reply]
Rosalind Gardner reply on April 18, 2008 9:37 am:
Hey Yvonne,
WAY cool!! So glad that we could be of help. Have fun with your blog… and we’ll show you how to get your Flickr photosets in there too, which the Nubian Ski folks should enjoy very much!
Cheers,
Ros
[Reply]
My head hurts but I finally did everything in the videos.
[Reply]
Rosalind Gardner reply on April 18, 2008 9:39 am:
Hi Kathy,
No worries, it gets easier over time. In the meantime, I’ve found that Advil works better than Tylenol for pain.
Cheers,
Ros
[Reply]
Problem with watching videos get stuck and will not download any further?
[Reply]
Britne reply on April 28, 2008 10:08 pm:
I’m having that problem also ! #1 worked fine but I can’t get #2 to load.
[Reply]
Hi. This is great, but I have a few questions. I just updated a wordpress blog that I had with your instructions. But I also have another blog that has more posts. It is a blogger blog that is hosted on my own domain. There is so much more you can do with Wordpress that I was considering trying to switch the blog over to the Wordpress software. But will that mess up all the links that I already have in the search engines and blog directories if I keep the same url? Would it be better to leave well enough alone?
[Reply]
Hi
I have done everything you suggested and I just want to say thanks for making it all very easy to follow. Really interesting stuff.
Looking forward to the rest of the videos.
[Reply]
HELP! I changed the settings so that my post titles would show up in the url instead of just the post number and also added the new ping list. Seems to have worked, but now none of my links work! When I click on ANY links on the blog I now get a 404 error page.
The blog is at http://www.communi-keys.com
Since this is an established blog, I need to fix this quickly. Any ideas on what I’ve done and how to undo it??
Thanks.
[Reply]
Anik Singal reply on April 18, 2008 11:50 am:
Helen,
I’ll ask my tech guys to help - but see, here’s the thing - your links are now DIFFERENT than they were before. Because the URL has changed…
Am I understanding this correctly? Maybe describe it more here and I can get a technical person to come here and give some more advice.
Rosalind is out for a few hours, she can also look at it at that point.
Anik Singal
[Reply]
Helen reply on April 18, 2008 1:15 pm:
Thanks for checking this out for me, Anik. When you go to the blog you see the current post. But ALL the links down the sides — the category links, the previous posts, the static pages — are broken. Hit any of them and you get the error page.
Helen
[Reply]
Sumit Pilankar reply on April 19, 2008 12:56 am:
Helen,
The settings that you changed to so that post titles would show up in the url instead of just the post number, is called Permalinks.
For Permalinks to work, you would need Mod_Rewrite enabled on the server. This mod is default available of Apache server, but your webserver seems to be Microsoft IIS server, which I understand does not support Mod_Rewrite, but may have some other module similar to Mod_Rewrite. I will request you to get advise from your Server Administrators on this.
For now, you can just disable Permalinks. For doing this:
1. Login to Admin panel.
2. On Wordpress < 2.5, Click “Options”. On Wordpress 2.5, click “Settings”.
3. Click “Permalinks”
4. Select “Default” there and hit “Save Changes”.
This will get you back to old url formats, but the site will start working, until the Server Administrators provide you a solution.
Sumit
Helen reply on April 19, 2008 3:56 pm:
Thanks Sumit. I didn’t understand all this, but I did go and put the Permalinks back to default. This is an existing blog and the host doesn’t have CPanel, so that might be the problem. My next blog will be on Bluehost!
Thanks again.
Helen
Bryant reply on April 20, 2008 8:33 pm:
I also use IIS and the permalinks works on my blog. It could be that those links on the left are links that you added manually. If you go to Manage -> Links, is that where those links are defined? If so, try changing one of them to the new URL after turning on permalinks again. If that works then you will need to change the others in order to keep permalinks on.
Incidentally, it is worth trying to get it working as it will make a difference in your site ranking on Google. Strategically worded post titles showing up in the URL is a nice boost. HTH
Bryant reply on April 22, 2008 1:23 am:
Seems that I jumped the gun on calling for success. My links broke all over the blog once the setting was saved successfully. Anyway, found a solution for IIS bloggers. Works best if you have admin access/rights.
Details of this issue and a simple solution about half-way down page at “Permalinks without mod_rewrite”
http://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Permalinks
Requires admin access and a little tech knowledge but works just like mod_rewrite. Download it here:
http://www.binaryfortress.com/wordpress-url-rewrite/
Malcolm reply on April 21, 2008 8:56 am:
Hi Helen
I had a similar problem, but what I did was this.
When you log into the Wrodpress Admin area and go to setting and permalink, go to the custome field and put in /%postname%/
Now, if all the php files in the blog root are set to 666 this should work but mine didn’t. What I noticed was that below the custom filed where I entered /%postname%/ there was some text which said that if the .htacces file was writeable, this would be done automatically but this informed me I had to copy a block of text and paste it into the .htaccess file.
My .htacces file was actually in the public_html file but not in the root of my blog file which is an add on domain. I am saying this just to make you aware that the .htaccess file may not be in the root of your blog so do look in the root folder if your blog is not in the root folder.
Sorry if this is to long and confusing but basically, copy the needed text into your htacccess file if you had the same message as I did at the bottom of the Permalinks page.
Hope this helps.
[Reply]
Wendy reply on April 22, 2008 8:38 pm:
Hi There! You don’t know me, but I wanted to follow up with your advice. I tried what you suggested regarding pasting the code provided by WordPress directly into the .htaccess file.
It worked! Thank goodness!!
So, thank you and to others having this problem… try what Malcom has suggested.
[Reply]
I’m lost ! Put up a blog and although it appears to be on the web how do I access it via my FTP sofware? I don’t follow the link between blog and hosting. Is the blog an independant entity or is it part of a website ?
[Reply]
Rosalind Gardner reply on April 18, 2008 4:38 pm:
Hi Lawrence,
No problem!
Your blog is hosted on your web hosting service’s (ie. Bluehost) server.
A blog is simply a content management system that is either the site itself or part of the site… if you add other components.
But for right now, the blog IS your site.
To see how to connect via FTP, review the first 2 videos above. Basically, you input the info sent to you by your host to login to your account — into the FTP software. Click connect and you’ll be connected to the server/site/host on the right side of the screen.
The left side is where you can navigate to various files and folders on your computer.
Does that help?
Cheers,
Ros
[Reply]
Help! I downloaded ftp-pro and seems okay, but, my computer shows on both sides how do I get my blog onto the other side?
(Humble apologies if this is elementary to most of you…I am learning everything at once.)
Thank you for being there!
Nancy
[Reply]
Rosalind Gardner reply on April 18, 2008 4:40 pm:
Nancy,
If there is a file folder that says public_html on the right side of your FTP screen, then that is your site on the host’s server.
Do you see that?
Ros
[Reply]
Nancy reply on April 18, 2008 8:16 pm:
Hi Ros,
The right side says ‘blank connection panel’ with two choices: local or remote. Local gets me a duplicate of the left side, whereas, remote brings up a site manager box.
Haven’t a clue what to do.
Can I just skip the plugin section for now and go on?
Thank you for your time and energy. Nancy
[Reply]
Bill reply on April 19, 2008 8:03 pm:
Nancy,
Do a search on YouTube for FTP’ing; they have dozens.
It might give you some pointers as to how or what you’re
seeing and what to do at that point.
Bill
came up with an issue of the permissions. I had rest them to 666 before I went to sleep last night and when I woke up this morning my templates were all gone. I spoke with a wordpress user friend of mine and we established new permissions that allowed my templates to show thank God. lol but the 666 did not work for me I’m now 755 to show everything.
just thought you would want to know.
c
[Reply]
Rosalind Gardner reply on April 18, 2008 4:32 pm:
Hey Claudia,
Well THAT would have been a shocker!! But thanks for sharing your experience with us just in case any of the other students run across the same issue.
Cheers,
Ros
[Reply]
Ros/ Anik,
Another newbie here. I obviously don’t have FTP Pro on my computer. When I went to their site to get a download, they said I should look for instructions of how to download FTP Pro “within the next 2 days”! Any suggestions?
[Reply]
Rosalind Gardner reply on April 18, 2008 4:31 pm:
Hi Dino,
You don’t need FTP Pro. That’s just what I use because I’ve been using it for years. You can get the Filezilla software at http://filezilla-project.org/download.php. They’re almost the same… although Filezilla is free.
Instructions for its use (setting permissions) is in the 2nd video in this post.
Cheers,
Ros
[Reply]
Dino reply on April 18, 2008 10:40 pm:
Thanks, Ros.
I’ve downloaded Filezilla, but I’m unsure which port number to use.
[Reply]
Dino reply on April 18, 2008 11:01 pm:
Filezilla defaulted to “80″. I created an FTP account from my site’s cPanel and used the same user and password, but for some reason I keep getting “failed to connect to server” messages.
Any help would be appreciated.
Bill reply on April 19, 2008 2:42 am:
Dino… Set your port to 21 and try it again.
Bill
Dino reply on April 19, 2008 4:17 pm:
Bill,
Thanks for the tip. Here’s what I keep getting:
Command: PASS ********
Response: 530 Login authentication failed
Error: Could not connect to server
Is there somewhere on my cPanel where I can go to find out any additional information req’d.
Dino reply on April 19, 2008 4:38 pm:
I redid some passwords and I’m finally able to utilize Filezilla.
Thanks!
Thanks for this course: there is certainly a lot of information to absorb.I’ve gotten the All in One SEO pak added as wll as updating the pings. I had originally hosted on blogspot and just discovered that I can import all my posts into my new wordpress with just one click of IMPORT. Definitely a time saver!!
[Reply]
Anik & Ros,
First off, Thank You guys so much for doing this and that Super Affiliate eBook I got from you Ros is great and I will be able to make more use of it now once I get this blog set up.
Here’s my problem:
I upgraded to a new Ver of WordPress but the newest Blue Host had was the 2.3.3, I up grade and went back to see if the 2.5 was there and it wasn’t.
I followed the videos anyway, when I loaded the SEO Meta Editor Advanced, everything was cool, till I read the Read Me file and added the 2 snippets Cheekyo explained and after pasting them in I get this message when I go to View Blog. I have put in spaces, took out spaces and made it look just like she did and I get this messgae when viewing:
Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_STRING in /home/yourbeda/public_html/affiliateprogramsu/wp-content/themes/default/header.php on line 13
What do I need to do, when I cut out the snippets everything looks good again.
Darwin
[Reply]
Rosalind Gardner reply on April 19, 2008 2:04 am:
Hi Darwin,
Please file a ticket on the NPT Support Desk http://www.netprofitstoday.com/support/ and I’ll send you a text file with the original header.php code.
It’s always good to keep a fresh copy of the files on your computer just in case something breaks.
Cheers,
Ros
[Reply]
Darwin reply on April 19, 2008 11:46 am:
Ros,
Thanks for the quick reply and I did go to NPT and put in a support ticket, but I don’t think I need the orginal code, I can take out the snippet the Read Me file for SEO Editor Advanced sai8d to put in and it works fine.
My Questions are:
Is just have the 2.3.3 WP affecting this?
Will we need WP 2.5 for this class procedures to work?
Wil the SEO Editor Advanced work without this snippet added to the Header.php?
Thank You
Darwin
[Reply]
The videos get stuck half-way through. This happened yesterday too. On the Setting Permissions video, can you just tell me what to do next in FileZilla after I go to my blog folder > wp-content > themes ? The video stops right there everytime.
Also, can’t I just avoid FTP-ind and access those same folders via Blue Host’s CPanel File Manager?
Thanks!
Katy
[Reply]
Rosalind Gardner reply on April 19, 2008 1:57 am:
Hi Katy,
You can set permissions via cPanel. You’ll want to set your .htaccess (in the blog root) and all the files in the theme folder (wp-content) to 666. You don’t have to CHMOD (set permissions) on the function.php file though… that can sometimes cause an issue.
Cheers,
Ros
[Reply]
Bryant reply on April 20, 2008 8:39 pm:
There is a plugin that lets you upload new plugins and themes via your blog. It is called OneClick. I lost the link but you can search for it and find it pretty simply. It also has an addon for Firefox that lets you install to your blog right from the download link of a plugin/theme. Unfortunately you will need to FTP this plugin as normal but after that no more. HTH
[Reply]
Awesome stuff, thenks guys. I see the SEO Pack is the hotest plugin download, over 300,000 downloads - must be heaps of people watching your videos!!
[Reply]
Rosalind Gardner reply on April 19, 2008 1:54 am:
Hmmm… maybe that’s why they’re running slow for some.
[Reply]
Hi Rosalind and Anik
This is great stuff you are teaching! I would have never figured out any of this on my own.
I have the permalinks done, the plug-ins (I also put in CodeBanter—I got an email about it and had just gotten done learning how to install the plug-ins). Is that a good one to have? It seemed like it would be useful.
The design of my blog changed—seemingly all on it’s own. I’m sure I did something to make that happen but I don’t know what!
I believe I have all the lesson #2 work done and am looking forward to learning what to do next. Thank you both again!
Karla http://www.doctoryourhome.com/myblog
[Reply]
Rosalind Gardner reply on April 19, 2008 1:53 am:
Hey Carla,
Awesome! I’m not sure about CodeBanter, so I’ll check it out and report back. As for your design change, you’re now using the Classic theme. Already messin’ around on those design pages were you? LOL. Good for you!
Cheers,
Ros
[Reply]
Hey Ros,
Where can I d/l a .htaccess file for WP? I could
put up a blank one and let WP write to it, if
that will work.
Bill
[Reply]
Fred Holmes reply on April 20, 2008 3:38 pm:
Hi Bill,
go check out post #53 in this thread, and follow the link.
I think you’ll find all the .htaccess information there that you’ll ever need…:)
Best wishes
Fred Holmes
[Reply]
Hi Rosalind & Anik,
I have have managed to complete assignments one and two. The only problem I have had is that video #2 on assignment 2 stops after a minute and a half - so I am not sure if I have set my permissions correctly or not. Have done everything else though and it all seems to work. I am hosted with Hostmonster and they also have Fantastico on a C panel with wordpress up to ver. 2.3.3 so I am stuck with this for now. The SEO plugin uploaded fine and works - no problem.
Here is the blog I staretd last year - I only have one post on it so far it’s at:-
http://www.awakenedentrepreneur.com
Many thnaks for these great vids.
Best - Helen
[Reply]
Hi - Just found the section on pemalinks in the Codex so will read this and work it all out.
Best - Helen
[Reply]
Hi Rosalind, Anik and everybody,
Thanks for this course, I had some problem but I solve it.
I hate Pernalinks it’s made me mad.
thanks again and I am looking forward.
[Reply]
BTW
all assignments had completed
[Reply]
Hi Rosalind and Anik,
Trying to follow along on Lesson #2, but got stopped trying to bring up the file on “SEO Meta… .” My adobe reader says there’s something wrong with the file, so being the true computer tool that it is, it just glares back at me with one great, gray eye. I downloaded the SEO tool from 3 different approaches (deleting each that didn’t work), so I guess Adobe Reader is/was right.
Also, got the msg on the #1 lesson that the script was slowing down my computer. Just lived with the msg repeatedly popping up ’til I finished the lesson.
I hope I’m not just experiencing ol’geezer mindfreeze.
Anxious to complete this lesson.
Gene
[Reply]
I’m a MAJOR newbie and am ready to pull my hair out. Before today, I didn’t know what a plug-in or FTP software was, so bear with me.
I cannot get the SEO Meta Editor to transfer to my Word Press Plugin using Firezilla because it does not recognize any host I enter. I’m using the user name and password Wordpress sent me when I set up my blog. And per an early post I’m using Port 21. Any ideas what I’m doing wrong? Thanks!
[Reply]
Jeanne reply on April 20, 2008 9:13 am:
Try putting your IP address in where it says “host.” That worked for me.
Hope that helps.
Jeanne
[Reply]
Justin reply on April 20, 2008 7:51 pm:
The way I always upload is to go to your host site, log in, then scroll down and click file manager click webroot, wp- content click plug ins and then upload. you can then search your computer for what you want to upload. It’s not totally sophisticated but it works for now.
Best Wishes-
Justin
[Reply]
Hey Guys,
I would like to be a part of all these exciting things with my blog, but my question is, I have my domain, but my blog, which is only 9 days old, I started free on Wordpress and just forwarded my domain to it, I don’t have my own hosting. Since I have the basic version of Wordpress, and don’t have it actually on my own hosting, it is too late for my blog to do these things or how can I take advantage of all your fantastic advice?
Thanks,
Mike
[Reply]
I am attempting to access the all-in-one-seo-pack plug-in and can’t find in on my wordpress plug-in panel.
I uploaded the folder to “/public_html/wp-content/plugins/”
What have I done wrong?
Travis
[Reply]
Ali reply on April 20, 2008 2:22 pm:
Hi Travis,
Please make sour that you have the right permission in all-in-one-seo-pack which is 755
Ali
[Reply]
Travis reply on April 20, 2008 4:38 pm:
Thank you very much for your help. I am up and running.
Travis
[Reply]
Sorry I’m late! Set up the blog today, went to check “assignment two”, and the 1st video begins at “Cheekyo”… huh? Seems like something’s missing: it says there’s a 6:15 sec. video, but there’s only about 2 mins. on there. Help! Thanks for the opportunity: this is so much fun! John (the Joy Boy)
[Reply]
WOW! lots of feedback. Just want to add my 2 cents in here. Seems people need more help understanding http://FTP. You guys are doing a FANTASTIC job, keep it up!
Since I teach online, this is great feedback for me. I will be creating a class on it soon. A friend of mine is teaching a free class all next week on using NVU & Kompozer, but questions on FTP are welcome. I will tweet the class on Twitter, later today and late Monday Morning. maybe we can even start a Blog Classroom study group;-)
Cheers!
[Reply]
I have wordpress 2.5 and I’m not sure I understood the set up for permalinks. I have had my site for about a month and just now trying to get it moving. I tried to post today, and when I went back in it has cut off part of my post and my link I wanted in there.
When I type it in, and review it, it looks like what it should be.
Also my theme’s are set at 755 which includes the execute.Should I change to 666 and leave off the execute?
[Reply]
Hi Rosalind I am new to this but you are a great help to me. I love the Blog Classroom it is a big help. I don’t have your book but I will get it soon. Keep up the good work and Thank you for the help. Maryann
[Reply]
Hi Rosalind, oops! Sent a comment earlier about not getting the SEO tool set up. My mistake. Misread instructions. Sorry.
I got your book about two years ago, but never followed up. Well, that was a mistake. Hope to make up for lost time.
Gene
[Reply]
Hey Ros & Anik,
Thanks for the explanation of permalinks. I looked it over and didn’t see an option that was SEO-friendly so I was glad when you covered how to use the custom option. It’s probably somewhere obvious but where did you learn the params it can take?
I had the SEO plugin installed but I also appreciated the example of your site to see how you used it. Examples always work best for me. How are the tags and trackbacks used?
Thanks again..
Bryant
[Reply]
Ros/Anik,
Is the idea behind the “All in One SEO pack” to repeat the title of the post below and to repeat the tags in the keyword area below?
[Reply]
Justin reply on April 20, 2008 8:00 pm:
The purpose of All-in-One SEO Pack is search engine optimization. If you have done that in your post title and tags then sure repeat them here. If you can find keywords that have less competing sites, well that is certainly what you should be going after. The video about long-tail keywords breaks down how to get targeted audiences to your site and should be your go to reference when deciding what to post about.. For example, I wrote a post about Mother’s Day 2008 Gift Ideas instead of just plain old Mother’s Day.
Hope this helps.
Regards,
Justin
[Reply]
Anik and Ros,
I’m a little behind here and just got to lesson 2.
Followed the link to Cheekyo and downloaded the plug-in and then uploaded to my site.
If you check my blog the problem is there as my post.
My blog is showing now but I don’t know if the plug-in is working. How do I tell?
[Reply]
Justin reply on April 20, 2008 8:03 pm:
If you are talking about the SEO plugin you actually have to scroll down after your write post entry to the options below click all-in-one SEO to maximize it and fill in the fields before you save or publish your post.
Hope this helps’
Justin
[Reply]
I have been running my blog for a few weeks now. If I change the permalinks setting, will that mess all my internal links up for the past posts? I’m afraid to try that change because there is a lot of content there already.
Thanks! Off to set up the All in One SEO plug-in!
[Reply]
Online Marketing Fundamentals reply on April 20, 2008 8:15 pm:
Het Char
If you change the permalinks setting, it WILL change the URLs to ALL the previous posts - and all those internal links you have from one post to another will no longer work! Whatever search engine indexing that was done would be no more!
UNLESS…
You install a different WordPress plugin which looks after this for you… specifically
Dean’s Permalink Migration Plugin
However you should still change those internal links manually to reflect the new ones.
Cheers
Stephen Spry
[Reply]
Ok, All In One SEO installed. Question - can I and/or should I go back and revise all my former posts with titles and descriptions? Will that over-ping the ping sites if I am revising and saving a bunch of posts? (It is possible to over-ping the ping sites?)
Thanks!
[Reply]
Justin reply on April 20, 2008 5:52 pm:
What are you worried about SEO or over-notifying ping-o-matic? I combined several of my pages to make lenghthier content pages and probably pi**ed off a lot of my followers, but it will be easier in the long run for me and in the end the hundred or so visitors wondering where the pages went will get over it. It is easier to do these adjustments now,while we are still learning, than later down the road. I believe.
Best Wishes,
Justin
[Reply]
RE: .htaccess file;
Interesting information on at this site… http://corz.org/serv/tricks/htaccess.php
This article defines the name of the file and describes its function and placement.
Very easy to read and understand, no fancy mystery words, etc.
De-mystifies the whole concept quite nicely, thanks.
All the best
Fred
[Reply]
Hi Ros and Anik,
Your videos are really helping me out here. Trying to figure a lot of this out can be very confusing but you are making it much simpler. Usually once I am shown how to do something step-by-step as you are doing and then actually do it myself I can do it again without much of a problem. It seems as if most people expect us to be experts or know what they are talking about and be able to do it right away. It is always easy for somebody if they know how to do it. I think that sometimes the experts forget how hard how it was when they first started out. I know things are easy for me after I am shown how and do them a few times.
So all I have to say is these lessons are really great and I am definitely learning great stuff that is really needed. Implemented the plug-ins and did the permalink but now I actually have to write something and post it which I will do right after I finish this.
Best of success to us all,
Andrea J.
[Reply]
Hi Ros and Anik,
Really love the vids. I’m 2/3 of the way thru assignment #2.
Learning ALOT!!!
Thanks,
Denis
[Reply]
I am trying to catch up tonight - and don’t see any comments from anyone having trouble installing SEO Meta Editor Advanced.
I see it unzipped in my Filezilla but it is not showing up in the list of plugins on my blog . At the website where I downloaded it - cheekyo - there is other code that has to go in the Theme Editor ??????
Help
[Reply]
Justin reply on April 20, 2008 8:07 pm:
If you didn’t unzip it before you uploaded it then you will have to login to your host site, go to file manager, webroot, wp-content, go to plugins and then extract the files before they will show up under your options on CPanel Options
Hope this helps;
Justin
[Reply]
Ros and Anik,
Thanks for the videos. I wasn’t using the all-in-one-seo plugin and this is a great tip. I’m going back on my posts now to add the data.
[Reply]
I noticed if I go to quite a lot of those URL’s the sites are completely dead…
http://www.blogclassroom.com/ping-list.html
Is there a ping list that has all valid sites?
[Reply]
Anik Singal reply on April 20, 2008 10:34 pm:
Just tried that myself it worked fine? Anyone else having that problem?
Anik Singal
[Reply]
Vacation Rentals reply on April 20, 2008 10:58 pm:
Go to each URL on the ping list. Quite a few of the sites are not live anymore or the link is not the correct ping link.
eg:
http://www.imblogs.net/ping - dead ppc ads only
http://godesigngroup.com/blog/feed - Feed URL
http://effbot.org/rpc/ping.cgi - Can’t access
http://mod-pubsub.org/kn_apps/blogchatt - can’t access
http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC - not found
[Reply]
Rosalind Gardner reply on April 21, 2008 1:04 am:
No guarantees with ping lists I’m afraid… even the one on the Wordpress site lists update services that are here today, gone tomorrow.
Suggest that you simply remove those that you find dead from the list and continue to check for validity on a regular basis.
When you do that, search Google (Blogs) for the most recent lists available.
[Reply]
Thanks for the free information. It’s very satisfying to know that you can actually get free information that is worth something. http://www.bon-global-biz.com/creditcards-4uonline. The blog that you see comes from AtomicBlogging; a theme I bought a year ago (updated recently). There are many things I need to edit and change but will need some extra help.
[Reply]
Rosalind Gardner reply on April 21, 2008 1:06 am:
Hi Edito,
I like that theme… nice and clean and like the 3 sections at the top.
I’ll be delving quite a bit into themes and tweaking themes during the course. My favorite part actually, I’m a tweaker at heart.
Cheers,
Ros
[Reply]
Ok I started all over because I was using the free Blog. It took me a few days to get back up to speed. I did all of assignment two but I do have a problem.
http://multischemesforincome.com/myblog/
I can’t get my post title before my blog title.
I did everything just like the video even found my htacess.
Does anyone have any ideas for me? HELP!
[Reply]
Justin reply on April 21, 2008 7:58 am:
I think it’s because you have your blog installed at /myblog/ and not on your homepage which is why you see http://multischemesforincome.com/myblog/setting-up-a-new-hosted-blog/ instead of mulitschemesforincome com/setting-up-a-new-hosted-blog/. You can see that if you click the title to your post that it shows up in the title before your website domain which is good for search engines.
Hope this helps.
Justin
[Reply]
Natalie reply on April 21, 2008 8:28 am:
Man I messed up big time now.
I tried to change it to just my website and removed the /myblog/ part and now It’s all gone with a 500 internal server error and I can’t get into to to change it back.
Can anyone help me??? Thank you so much
[Reply]
Rosalind Gardner reply on April 21, 2008 9:45 am:
Natalie,
I’ve requested an answer from our technical staff for you.
Once you’re back online, to get the post title before the blog title, login and go to Settings and click the All in One SEO link, which will open up the settings for the plugin.
Beside Post Title Format, put in %post_title% | %blog_title% to flip the elements. Or eliminate the | %blog_title% all together.
Hope that helps!
Cheers,
Ros
Justin reply on April 21, 2008 9:45 am:
Hi Natalie
In your CPanel go to options general and check to see if you have wordpress installed on your main page(it should be) or on /myblog/. This makes a difference if you deleted the /myblog/ page without moving WordPress to your mainpage then you won’t be able to see it. I had the same problem in the past and this was the option that worked for me.
Hope this help,
Justin
Natalie reply on April 21, 2008 10:11 am:
Thank you both so much for the fast help.
I found another way to fix it. http://multischemesforincome.com
I called BlueHost and she took out /myblog/ by moving it to the domain folder.
I’ll play around again to see if it all works right now.
I’m learning a lot:)
Rosalind Gardner reply on April 21, 2008 10:14 am:
Natalie,
I’m so pleased to hear that you got it worked out… and that’s a really good example of why we recommend BlueHost.
Cheers,
Ros
Hi All,
1) I have installed the WP in my domain not subfolder. My permalink showing /index.php/%postname%/ is this correct?
2) I’m using add on domains hosting, my add-on root WP does not have htaccess file, do I need to install it to my add-on root WP folder?
Thanks a lot
Winston
[Reply]
Rosalind Gardner reply on April 21, 2008 9:16 am:
Hello Winston,
1. I usually remove the /index.php portion of the equation as well. Of course, the first time I did that, I had TONS of links in posts to change, so best to do it soon if you plan to do it at all.
2. The .htaccess file should be there. Because the name of the file begins with a dot, it may not be visible through your FTP client (Filezilla) unless you change the preferences of the FTP tool to show all files, including the hidden files.
If the .htaccess file isn’t there, create one. Create a text file on your local computer, call it 1.htaccess, upload it to the root of your WordPress folder, and then rename it to .htaccess.
Cheers,
Ros
[Reply]
Winston reply on April 21, 2008 11:22 am:
Thanks Ros,
I’m going to create a new .htaccess file using Notepad.
Any code I need to input? OR just create a blank text file for this new .htaccess to load to my root WP folder?
Thank you
Winston
[Reply]
Bill reply on April 21, 2008 4:20 pm:
Hey Guys,
I’ve tried the blank .htaccess and it didn’t work.
But jump over to “Lesson 3″ and post 20 — There
Ali gave me a link to download the file he wrote
for me.
Remember to change the permissions after uploading.
The sad note to all of this is my permalinks still
won’t work.
Bill
Winston,
1) That’s fine, but if your host supports .htaccess, you may want to take the index.php/ part out of the URL. But I don’t think this will affect search engines in a huge way.
2) .htaccess can be put in subdirectories, even within an add-on domain.
[Reply]
Thanks for the great videos. I have had my blog up for a short time and am looking forward to learning more about blogging. I have now set up several and have seen an increase in traffic thanks to your videos.
Betty
http://www.ezwebprofits.com
http://www.back-pain-abc.com/blog
[Reply]
I got a little worried when it was time to ftp the,
all in one seo pack into the plugin of wordpress.
I didn’t know wether to ftp the whole folder,
or just the conten