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I am always finding ways to return a favor (or favors) to all my readers, followers and even subscribers. I wouldn’t have made it so far without you. Seriously.
I would have given up within the first one week but thankfully, you guys are here to help, guide and show me the way. I really appreciate that!
You might be asking me so what’s this all about, right? C’mon, I know you are eager to know!
All of you have either retweeted, shared and even liked my articles on social network. I even received some trackbacks too which is great. So, here I am today … offering you a platform where we can exchange social media profiles, spend some time connecting and following each other.
Yes! I mean it. I want to give you free backlinks!
So, feel free to promote yourself, website and even social profiles. All you have to do are the below:
Your website or article you would like to share (just one)
Twitter
Facebook profile or page
Google+ profile or page
So, what’s the catch?
In order for you to get a DoFollow backlink, you just got to Tweet, Like or +1 this post. Once you have added me, I’ll add you back and let’s start sharing!
If you have yet to follow me, this are a few ways which you can connect to me:
Triberr is a blog amplification and content discovery platform.
Triberr sends over two million visits monthly to their blog members – Traffic Generation Cafe
For me, I didn’t know what the hell Triberr is until last month and yes, I discovered it pretty late. Well, better late than never right?
It all came down to one day where Adam Connell hit me on email that I should consider joining it if I want to be a better blogger. Okay, he’s a marketing man and thus, I knew exactly where he was coming and what he thought Triberr was.
Since I am always trying to increase my social engagement than just plain SEO, I said why not and got myself registered within 5 minutes. The whole process of setting up my complete profile was about 15 minutes since I integrated it with Facebook and Twitter. Lazy me!
Welcome to the world of Triberr!
What’s your first impression of Triberr? Here’s mine 🙂
When I first got into Triberr’s dashboard, I had this in mind (seriously), “What the !@#$ had I just landed myself to?”.
I’m a lazy dude at times and I was hoping for a more detailed ‘get started tutorial’. Well, to my despair, there ain’t much guidance on how to navigate. Remember, this is a new account and thus, I have zero tribe.
The next option? I decided to hit the search button and search for blogging keyword.
It came up a few hits and I felt that was cool since I’m able to see the number of members, reach outs etc. When I saw the number of reach outs, my mind got straight into marketing mindset (thanks Adam!).
You know … 12,000 reach outs means 12,000 potential readers! I was drooling all over my keyword. Not really 🙂
I decided to join a few tribes which good number of reach outs. <— This is wrong guys. Don’t go here. Tell you more below!
Okay, joining was easy and I was in the tribe. Good but what’s next? I decided to say hello and after a few hours, nothing came back. Not even a single “Hi”.
What?!
Now, reality kicks in and I decided to search for some info on how Triberr works. Hey, don’t judge me! I’m also human, you know?!
I decided to change my moves and joined tribes which are best fit my interest; blogging, marketing and SEO. Now, this is where it all makes the difference!
Comments were pouring in faster and better. I get a reply for nearly every ‘shout’ I did and that’s fabulous! There’s no better place than a lively place right?
Help! I don’t want to stay in zombieland!
How to make Triberr work for you?
Now, this is probably the 10th article you read about Triberr. No? Don’t matter about it and lets make this reading count!
Triberr is all about blog marketing, discussion and social shares. Good thing is Triberr will import in your blog articles and allow you to share with the rest of your tribe mates. Pretty good for a free service right?
On a free account, you can basically ‘approve’ a maximum of 100 posts per day. You also have the option to share the articles on social media as well. A huge, huge plus one for social engagement if you ask me.
You had just joined Triberr and wondering how to make it work for you right? The answer is, there ain’t an easy way out for this. You need to build your reputation … yes from scratch!
Depending on what you have in mind, the steps might be different. I’ll try to cover as much as possible here so that you’re not leaving empty handed!
What’s the essence to make Triberr work for you?
1. Joint the right tribe that suits your niche
I think this is the most important of all. There ain’t any point joining a tribe that doesn’t relate to you or your writing. Yes, the tribe may have a huge reach outs but there isn’t any use if no one is going to read it.
To say Triberr as a huge blogging platform could be an understatement since they are sending out millions of blog traffic per month. Opportunity is always there for you to grab it and therefore, you need to plan your move carefully.
I doesn’t have much time and therefore, I decide to be active on several tribes only. Furthermore, I have just started my own tribe, Blogging Moments and my personal suggestion, you got to take a look at it right now.
Don’t worry, the link will automatically open a new tab for you and I’ll wait 🙂
Disclaimer: The tribe is brand new so bear with me!
2. Focus on small but quality tribes
If you want to grow in Triberr, you have to focus on quality, not quantity. This means that you need to ensure that the tribes you join is active, related niche and most importantly, the willingness to share.
Joining these tribes would actually make it more worthwhile for your time and giving your more satisfaction. Trust me!
Quality tribes usually have tribe members who will share your articles and give feedback which can help you (and your website) to improve, overtime. What’s the point of joining a tribe who does zero shares and provide no discussion right?
If you want to join a good tribe, you need to do some homework first in advance. Knowing what the tribe is all about is more than just important to grow your brand, name and of course, link building.
3. Take the opportunity to connect with others
Triberr is a great place to meet up with fellow bloggers. It doesn’t matter the rank, popularity etc. At Triberr, everyone is basically equal and grab this ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ opportunity to say hello!
I like to use Triberr to work for me … especially when it comes to connecting people. How would I start? This is the rule of thumb I always use:
Join a tribe
Say hello and a little intro about yourself
Share a link of your website (just one)
Share links of other members on social social media
Share valuable information with them on both Triberr and social media as well
If you are a new or inexperienced blogger who looking for some exposure, Triberr is the gateway for you to build your brand from scratch.
4. Auto RSS syndication
Why I love Triberr? Remember that you got to connect your blog’s RSS feed to Triberr? Whenever a new post is detected on your RSS, it gets submitted to every one of your tribemates’ stream.
Makes sense?
Let’s say you wrote a new post and it goes live on your site. When your RSS feeds get updated, Triberr will syndicate and make the article visible on your tribe.
I know a few bloggers who ditch Triberr less than a week there. Some says Triberr is not worth the time while others say that the experience isn’t great. So, is Triberr really that bad?
[Triberr] it’s a wonderful premise. In a world less centered around teaching our kids not to share hairbrushes, car rides, the air we breathe it would work out great. Lately, however, not so much for me and triberr. I’ve noticed a marked lack of reciprocal sharing. I share others’ posts. They don’t share mine. Week after week, nothing changes. I share. They don’t. To be quite frank, I’ve been feeling a little used – Katrina Joyner
Before I quit using Triberr, I decided to take some responsibility regarding how I was choosing to use it. I stopped sharing all of my tribemates’ posts, and took the retribution from some choosing not to share mine anymore either. I began to see Triberr as a curation tool. I did have a lot of great bloggers in my tribes, so instead of blaming Triberr for how I used it, I started to regard it as a safe keeping spot for blogs I intended to read – Amy McCloskey Tobin
So, what really makes Tribber ‘tough’ to use?
Triberr pissed some people off. Why??!
1. Human perception
Taking myself for instance. I dashed into Triberr thinking to create magic and within 5 minutes, I was slapped with the big fail sign. The cause? Yup, you got it right – my own perception.
Human always want to go the easy way … or at least, we try to go easy. The fact is nothing comes easy and same goes to making a mark at Triberr.
If you think that Triberr is a place to make fast connections, then you’re absolutely wrong. Here’s the cold hard fact; there’s no place on earth that offers you fast ‘minute to fame’. If you want to be popular or successful, start getting your hands dirty.
Triberr is a platform, not a tool to create link building. It does great assisting hardworking and determined people to build lasting relationships 🙂
2. Taking and not giving
Life is all about giving and taking. You know … like yin and yang?
In Triberr, you got to act and think like a reader. This means that if you like the post, comment on it and share it if the article is worth while. The more you share and comment, the more you are telling the world that you are alive and … yes, brand awareness.
As a free Triberr member, you would have 100 ‘points’ to share articles and why don’t you use the maximum of its capability? I don’t use all honestly. I only share those who fits my niche and the ones I read. At least, I’m not abusing the system right?
Most people doesn’t get much traffic from Triberr because they aren’t sharing. If you are not visible to others, then you won’t be anyway closer to increase your backlinks and relationship with others.
3. Is exploring your cup of tea?
For me Triberr is no clear cut. This means that from the outer look, it looks plain simple. Nothing big deal about it and this is where most bloggers fall apart.
There are probably many guides out there which offers you the right way to grow with Triberr (including mine). What told and written by me might not work perfectly well for you. You got to adjust, modify and work out plans to grow your social engagement level. Basically, putting your Internet marketing skills to work. Here are some of the must-have Internet marketing tools to help you start on the right foot.
4. Please … no salesman allowed
When it comes to Triberr, no one likes affiliate sales. However, here’s the thin line for that. You need to make sure you are not sharing a sales page or an article full of affiliate links.
Most bloggers does it wrongly because they tend to share sales pages etc and when that doesn’t bring them any sales, they tend to be demotivated and felt Triberr is bad.
Consider this, we are all human and we love reading something useful. Honestly, do you mind reading an article which has 0.5% density for affiliate link? I bet you don’t right?
The point is this: You got to know what you can and what you can’t share on Triberr. Keeping a good reputation is important for your success at Triberr.
My personal opinion about Triberr (plus Slideshare presentation)
Hate it or love it, Triberr is here to stay. I wouldn’t advice you should write it off (but I knew some who does that) at least for now. It is a great platform to share information, guides and build lasting relationships.
Personally, I think Triberr is worth it … regardless if you are using the free account like I do or you’re a Prime member. It is an excellent tool for those who want to create brand awareness and even, publicity (in a good way). Besides that, Triberr has more options such as reblog feature which I have yet to try out.
The only downside? There are many members who actually uses it as a stepping stone to grow their audience. If you want to avoid them, you got to choose your tribe or tribe mates carefully. Joining a wrong tribe will cause you lots of problem in the future.
As the saying goes, the Triberr experience lies in YOU!
Wait!
Like the article or thinking of connecting with me? Join me on Triberr now and let’s get connected instantly.
If you find this article interesting, I would be very grateful if you could share it using the red button below.
Getting backlinks from quality website is basic SEO 101. It is a long, expensive and time consuming task. What’s makes it more challenging is that every blogger in the world is trying to get good backlinks pointing back to their sites.
Well, if you’re having some backlink woes, you have came to the right spot. I’m going to share with you how you can get a free and high quality backlink from a page rank (PR) 8 website … for free!
Yup, you don’t have spend a dime for this. All you need is just 10 minutes of your time and you can enjoy the free backlink. Of course, assuming that you have a good content blog.
Allow me to introduce to you, the Technorati blog.
What is Technorati blog?
I prefer to describe Technorati as a blog directory. You can submit your blog URL and it helps you to syndicate it on its site.
Technorati is an Internet search engine for searching blogs. By June 2008, Technorati was indexing 112.8 million blogs and over 250 million pieces of tagged social media.[3] The name Technorati is a blend of the words technology and literati, which invokes the notion of technological intelligence or intellectualism. – Wikipedia
With a page rank scale of 8, I bet it is a no brainer to get at least one backlink from there back to your website right?
As good as it may sounds, I know there are still people who dislike it. Well, for most obvious reason is on how they actually calculate your website ranking. Okay, since we’re talking about getting a good backlink, let’s talk about the good part only, shall we?
Setting up your account and claiming ownership on Technorati
The first and easiest step is to get yourself an account with Technorati. Yes it is free and it won’t cost you a dime.
Next, complete your profile with all the details for others to connect to you.
Once that is all set, you need to claim your blog’s ownership.
Submit your blog’s RSS and select ‘Claim Ownership’.
Check your email for the Technorati claim token.
Place the token code on any of your active posts.
An issue that you might face when claiming website ownership
I’m not sure about the rest but personally, I experienced one devastating issue; I wasn’t able to claim ownership for my website!
So, what was the problem?
Basically, when you request for a Technorati claim, Technorati will send you an email and requesting you to place a code on your website like this:
Email from Technorati informing about the website claim.
Now, you need to place the code on your website … specifically in any of your live post and must be available via RSS.
Example:
Technorati Claim Token: 52QT5MQXJN9G
Yes, Technorati syndicate your website using RSS feed. Remember the part where you submit your blog’s RSS to Technorati in the settings?
At times, it takes some time to get your RSS feed ‘sync’ with your posts. Therefore, I would suggest waiting for at least an hour before you proceed to verify your website ownership with Technorati.
For your info, I uses FeedBurner as my RSS and it took me about 6 hours before I finally get my site approved for my Technorati claim. Weird huh?
Go figure!
So, don’t panic if Technorati informed you that they are not able to verify your website ownership. Give it few hours or so and it should be just fine if you’re doing everything correctly.
Help! I’m not getting the free backlink from Technorati!
I know some had issues trying to get backlink from the site. The simple reason could be either you have low quality content or your blog is probably new. This means that Technorati would still need some time to syndicate your content first before anything else.
Now, read the above sentence again.
Did you read the part where I say Technorati syndicate your content using RSS?
Yes! This means that you need to make sure that your website is having a working RSS URL. You can easily sign up for a free RSS address using FeedBurner.
Now, the next step is totally up to you. You’re going to get more traffic and backlinks from Technorati if you start writing quality content. Well, it’s fair right? You won’t get free backlink if you aren’t doing anything good.
Back to you…
Have you registered your website with Technorati? I did recently and my site score is only 23,557. Crazy far away huh? Hit the reply button below and let’s discuss.
If you find this article interesting, I would be very grateful if you could share it using the red button below.
Email list is more than just a list. In fact, it is the black book for nearly every successful marketer, blogger and companies alike.
Don’t worry if you have not started anything at all.
This article will explain to you important things about starting an email campaign … opps, I mean building a successful mailing list.
That’s why you’re here right? With so many email marketing guides out there, I want to make sure that the time spend on this article (expected to be 10 minutes or less), would provide you guidance which will prove useful not only today, but for the coming years.
Do you know what is email campaign and the importance of it?
There are several reasons why you should start building an email list right now. You may use the list to:
Grow your website traffic
Keep your readers informed on the latest posts and news
Increase the number of returned visitors
Boost your sales pitch and revenue earning (marketing)
Promote brand awareness
Get involved and get in touch with your loyal readers
There’s probably tons of other advantages that you can gain just by having an email list but you get the point. It doesn’t matter what industry you are in … you need a list.
When I started this website, I was like you … you know, wanting to grow my traffic and get my visitors back for more. The only way is to build more loyal readers who trust and have faith in me.
Creating an email list from scratch is hard and no easy task. Hopefully by the time you finish implementing these three methods, you’ll be able to gain good and stable moment of subscription rate.
Hold on a second now. Do you know how an opt-in form works? Not? No frust! The below an example of my opt-in form. Just enter your email and try it out! Yes it is absolutely free and if you dislike it, just hit the unsubscribe!
Method #1: Choose your email marketing provider
I’m not talking about Gmail, Yahoo or Outlook guys. I’m talking of auto responders, scheduling email blasts and managing your subscribers list. Most importantly, a program or service which could help me build my successful email campaigns.
There are probably tons of email marketing providers out there to choose from; from freemium to more than just affordable subscriptions.
Basically, these features are a must in any email marketing provider:
Ability to create signup or opt-in forms
Easy to embedded in any form (HTML, codes etc)
Manageable subscriber lists
Auto responders
RSS subscriptions
Spam control
If you have yet to start creating any email list, then I would highly recommend you to start now using Aweber. Here’s why:
Method 2: Split testing your subscription forms (must … must have feature!)
This is important guys. Most of us are attracted to colours and the same concept goes to subscription forms. If placing just one form on the same spot will not increase your signup rate, then you should be doing more split testing.
So what is split testing actually?
Split testing is also know as A/B testing. Let’s say you in a course of one month, you created one signup form to be placed on your sidebar. And, you aren’t getting any signup at all! So, what’s wrong?
Could it be the colour, text or even the size? Fact is, we would probably not know the real reason behind this.
BUT …
It doesn’t mean that you can’t do anything about it! You can perform tests and more experiment to determine which signup forms offer the best click through rate (CTR) and which isn’t.
If you have the thought that those are crazy, time consuming and it takes a lot of patience to do it, yes you are definitely right. Duh! Imagine how much time you got to spend on this split testing.
There is where Hybrid Connect comes in. Hybrid what?
Hybrid Connect is an advance mailing list building plugin for WordPress created by the famous Shane Melaugh. Well, it doesn’t matter if you don’t know how he is. What you need to know is the plugin is more than just plain awesome.
Basically, Hybrid Connect is about customization, improve your call to action ‘projects’ and ensuring that you are maximizing every possible chance to build email list. What?
Hybrid Connect is not like any other WordPress plugin when it comes to building email list. It does more than just that!
Here’s what it looks like on my admin panel:
Hybrid Connect allows me to build specific opt-in forms for different pages and post.
And this is what Hybrid Connect can do for you.
You can choose from:
Shortcode – Place any opt-in form anywhere in your content
Widget – Add any opt-in form to the sidebar or any other widget area
Light boxes – Create pop up opt-in form features
Slide in boxes – Allow forms to slide in from the bottom, side or top of the page or post
Squeeze pages – Create high-converting squeeze pages for sales boost
Comment list building – Option to opt-in with one click, when they leave a comment
I’m not saying that Hybrid Connect is the best out there. But for me, it works absolutely well and I see no reason why it won’t work for you … plus I love their support team who is always willing to help out.
Lesson learned? Always test and try out different forms to improve your sign up rates. Heard about “don’t put all your eggs in one basket?”
Method #3: Maximizing your click through rate (CTR) of your opt-in forms
You may use Hybrid Connect and a dozen more email list building software but you won’t be going anywhere if you are not getting any clicks.
To get your readers signing up for either a product sale or a simple newsletter, you got to make your opt-in form visible. Yes, make your call-to-action as attractive as possible. Here are some spots which works perfectly well to increase your CTR:
Featured area (before content)
Sidebar area (top or bottom most)
After content area (some call it after post)
Footer area
Floating or pop up opt-in form
Personally, if you want to increase your sign up rate, you should place your opt-in form on the top most of the article … place it right before the title area. I call it, featured widget.
This is one of my featured opt-in call to action.
Why?
When I first started my website, I had only a few signups per week. If you ask me, that isn’t making the cut. Not even close! After placing a featured opt-in form for just one week, my CTR increase by 15% on average. Yes, imagine for every 100 visitors I get, I would get about 15 signups. Since I’m using Aweber, I know they are absolutely legit and that’s great!
Now this is my sign up graph or stats.
My sign up stats increased drastically right after I place an opt-in form on my featured area
As you can see above, I wasn’t getting any healthy sign up rate. I would get probably 2 a day at most and sometime zero. With a call to action widget placed on the most visible part of the website, everything changes. I would let the stats above speak for itself.
From featured area to sidebar. Yes! You need to place at least one sidebar opt-in form on your sidebar if you want to grow your email list. When it comes to opt-in on side bar, you got to make it precise and short because you have very limited space to work with. So keep that in mind!
Basically, after post and footer opt-in forms are pretty normal and I wouldn’t into detail on that. However, I want to shift your attention now to the importance of having a pop up opt-in form.
Fact: You can increase your email list with pop up opt-in forms but …
Now, tell me this. Does the above question makes you wonder?
I hate pop up and I bet most of you do. So, making pop up opt-in form is tough especially when you do not want to drive your readers away.
A few things to consider are:
How often does the pop up will appear?
What type of pop up opt-in form to use? Complex or simple?
Does your readers get to view the pop up every time they head to a new page?
As I said above, pop up is very annoying and therefore, handle with care. My pop up will show be visible after my reader is on that page for a specific time and I love going simple but eye catching opt-in forms. And to add a little bit of twist, I set cookie where the same reader will only see the pop up once every 7 days.
Again, what works for me might not work for you. So, do some testing first before anything else.
If you are still having doubts whether you should start an email list or not, you definitely need to spend 5 minutes watching these slides.
Back to you
I was lucky to speak to some bloggers last week and I realized some of them have yet to start building email list for their blogs and websites. I started pretty late but I’m sure, it is never too late for anything.
All in all, email list is very important especially when you are thinking of increasing your traffic and getting your loyal readers coming back for more. Not to forget, having an email list is also a great way to communicate with your followers.
You need to do this right now:
If you like this article, subscribe to my free and once-a-week newsletter (below)
Tell me what you think on building an email list
Do you have any past experience to share with the rest?
And you can do all these using the forms below and hit the red button to share it.
Recently. WPTemplate shared an infographic on WordPress security issue. The figures were shocking. Each year, thousands of websites are compromised and the figures keep increasing every year.
In year 2012, more than 170,000 WordPress sites were hacked and that’s crazy!
The million dollar question could easily be, “Are you doing enough when it comes to securiting your website security?”
So, what you can do to improve your WordPress security?
Did you notice two of the biggest contributor to WordPress security are hosting companies and WordPress themes? And heck, most of thought that WordPress security has always associated with weak security password.
WordPress is one the biggest blogging platform in the world and thus, it is not something new that it is targeted by hackers every single day.
Being said that, you should not take WordPress security for granted and therefore, you should act now.
Yes mate, right now … by doing these easy steps!
1. Practice frequent updates
When was the last time you upgraded your WordPress or plugins? Usually, the latest updates are the one that has security patches or even newer features. If you have yet to get them updated, do it now. It wouldn’t take you more than 5 minutes.
At least, do it for the sake of your website security. Seriously!
2. Perform housekeeping and clean up on your website regularly
Safety first when it comes to website security
Do you know that it is best to delete or uninstall those unwanted plugins you have on your database? Yes, even though they have been deactivated, you should … and by all means remove them immediately. Having lesser plugins also provide a better website loading speed and not to forget, leaving a better experience for readers as well.
The main reasons is because there are many plugins which might pose a threat especially to WordPress. You have to remember that even though you might have deactivated them, they are still accessible in your website database.
3. Avoid using Admin username
This is the same mistake everyone does. You should never use Admin as your administrator ID. I know some WordPress sites advice users to create Admin username without any administrator access. For me, it is best to leave Admin untouched.
The first thing a hacker would try is to brute force login using Admin or Administrator ID. If you are using either one of those username, then you are basically making their life (of hacking) easier!
It is always best to have a mixture of words, symbols and numbers. Of course, you can further boost your WordPress security by adding capital letters as well.
4. Turn off membership registration
Proper ‘security check’ for members is vital to improve your WordPress security
Yes, I don’t allow open registration at all for my sites. Instead, I’ll manually add members myself. This is to ensure that I have complete control over security matters. Small security actions goes a long, long way when it comes to securing your WordPress site.
If everyone is able to register on your site freely, then you might have problem when you’ll find spam bots and potential hackers trying to break the website security.
I truly understand that adding membership manually might be a real pain but it is worth it for those who really cares about security matters. Of course, if you are running a big company, uses WordPress and has a full list of members, Premise might be the best WordPress membership for you.
5. Changing table prefix
This is one hell of efficient method when it comes to WordPress security. Better WP Security plugin makes it sound easy with just a press of a button. No, it isn’t that easy!
You got to learn how to change the prefix correctly or else, you are going to destroy your website … literally. I changed the last round and I accidentally ‘destroyed’ my theme. Ouch!
6. Backup, backup and backup
Nothing goes more important than backup … when it comes to website and stuffs. Lucky for you, there are some seriously good backup plugins and programs that work perfectly for WordPress. Why backup you may ask. Well, imagine you are being hacked or something bad happen to your site today. You can easily restore everything in a very short period since you have a backup file. What happens if you have no backup files? Then you would need to start back from scratch!
Real case scenario. Three months ago, I had several websites running and when ‘something’ bad happened to them, I practically lose hundreds of articles. Yes, I do backup but I only did once a month which is clearly, insufficient! However, it was good that at least, I still have a month old backup. If not, I would be doing everything from scratch … and for over five websites!
7. Security plugins could help
Hello, you’re being monitored.
Let’s say you are less geeky and need help with securing your website. There are WordPress security plugins such as WordFence and Better WP Security which could provide above average security features with just a few clicks of the mouse. Can’t decide which to use? You may find my review here, Wordfence vs Better Wp Security plugin.
Basically, these plugins will boost your WordPress security level and even provide you the well needed security notifications. Definitely worth a shot for those who prefer to be on the safe side.
8. Increase your security features with Content Delivery Network (CDN) services
Content delivery network or CDN could provide minimal security especially when you are using a free service. Well, some security is always better than no security right? No? 🙂
I always consider CDN to work very well especially when it comes to preventing Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks and also improving the website loading speed. Personally, if you are using a CDN for security, Incapsula has a very good security background while Cloudflare is much better of with improving website loading speed (with some security features).
9. Know your WordPress plugins
We all talk about WP everyday.
Now, ask yourself a question. How much do you know about your plugins?
I used to download and try all types of plugins last time and without even bother to check the reviews. Now, I do check their reviews first and even a little bit of Google-ing before installing anything. Some malicious plugins could be hacker’s backdoor to your admin area and protected files. So, always have a good grip of what you are installing and decide if they are really worth the time (and your website security).
Nothing is too personal when it comes to website security!
10. The last level of security comes from you
Me? Seriously?
Yes this is true! Who is your best, most accountable and trusted watch guard for your website? It’s you for Christ’s sake! You got to be on your toes and at least, check on basic changes done that you should be worried about. Let’s take a simple example below.
I had Better WP Security installed on one of my niche website and every time changes are done to my site, I”ll receive an email notification immediately. Imagine small changes such as uploading an image to my gallery and it triggers an email notification. Good? Excellent I would say!
Thing is, you got to at least know what’s happening on your website. Well, you might not have the technical skills to know what to do but at least, you’re still able to alert your hosting provider or developer to check on that.
And when you think that are all …
Hold on there tiger! The above are 10 important security tips when it comes to WordPress and I still have two more under my sleeves!
11. Choose the right WordPress theme for your website
Do you know that 29% of security problems originated from using the wrong WordPress themes? There’s absolutely no denial that there are thousands of free WordPress themes out there. My personal advice?
Ditch those free themes for crying out loud! Jesus! Don’t you see it? These themes might have some codes inside which could compromise your security. Not all, but certainly, I know a lot of them who actually are!
I don’t get it … I really, really don’t get it on … you know … free WordPress themes.
If you are willing to buy premium WordPress theme, you have to be careful as well as not all themes are coded properly. Badly codes one will actually affect your website in many ways.
Genesis 2.0 says out with the old (XHTML) and in with the new (HTML5), and if you want your website to be future-compatible it needs to use HTML5
Genesis 2.0’s support of Schema.org code — used by Google, Bing, Pinterest, and many others — allows you to incorporate microdata into your site’s code, further enhancing your SEO
Genesis 2.0 has code that, if you can believe it, is even cleaner and more lightweight than ever before — which means less bloat and faster load times for readers
Genesis 2.0 is responsive, and thus most of the child theme are as well
Genesis 2.0 is backwards-compatible (which makes update a brief)
Don’t take my words for that. Check them out yourself and decide which is best using the links below:
Last but not least, the infographic provided by WPTemplate proved that hosting companies play a huge role in terms of WordPress security. With 41% of website hacks originated from website hosting, I bet the figure explains it all.
Personally, I know there are so many hosting companies that are offering cheaper than usual hosting packages. I totally get it that hosting is a competitive industry but have you ever thought that cheap hosting might not provide even the slightest security features for your lovely website?
Let’s take some ‘stats’ for example, shall we?
Yoast SEO, Chris Brogan, Jay Baer and Chris Pirillo uses Web Synthesis hosting
HTC, FourSquare, SoundCloud and Balsamiq uses WP Engine hosting
Volkswagen, Samsung, Sony and dribbble uses Media Temple hosting
Now, does all these makes any logical sense to you?
The above are examples of big brands trusting their hosting companies. Do you see why they don’t go for cheaper corporate hosting? C’mon, give me a guess and I’ll wait! Yes, you got it right mate. It’s all about security.
When it comes to WordPress security, it is best to leave it to the pros if you have limited expertise.
Obviously, these brands are having a much bigger package but it doesn’t mean that you can’t join the big boys’ club. There are packages below $20 which could work very well on your budget and most importantly, a piece of mind 24/7.
You may be using a package say $5 per month but you have to do all the job and maintenance yourself. Simply by adding $15 a month, you would can leave all the maintenance work to the pros … for free.
With proper web hosting, you can forget about spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on webmasters who will take care of your websites (no offence though).
Last time, I was with GoDaddy and then, moved over to HostGator. Even though I was happy with my money spend with them, I wasn’t too happy about the support. What can you expect from a $4 or less web hosting package right?
Again (and like what I always say), don’t take my word for it. Go have a look at their websites have to offer.
If you think that SEO and all those blogging tips are important, think again. WordPress security is much more important nowadays. Thousands had done them wrongly and I certainly do not hope that you are one of them! Remember that hackers are always out there and you need to be ready for them.
Do you have any other WordPress security tips to share? If you do, drop me a comment below and let’s discuss it over.
**If you find this article interesting, I would be very grateful if you could share it using the red button below.
Since the last Google algorithm update, there are many rumors about link building and the white hat SEO strategies. I recently wrote about the importance of social engagement in contrast to SEO and it became a pretty hot topic. I believe the biggest question nowadays would be the important the the old school link building method.
Before we go any further, this is a snippet from Google Webmaster Tool:
Previously, Google said …
‘In general, webmasters can improve the rank of their sites by increasing the number of high-quality sites that link to their pages.’
And everything changes now with …
‘In general, webmasters can improve the rank of their sites by creating high-quality sites that users will want to use and share.’
Does this really means the end of link building techniques in search engine optimization? Of course not!
This doesn’t prove that link building is no longer in use. In fact, this makes link building even richer and more valuable! And at the same time, this new Google algorithm makes link building … yes, you got it right … harder but definitely not impossible.
Important disclaimer: This article is more than 2,000 words and I dare you to do read it in just one go. If not, bookmark this page right now and come back anytime when you are ready!
What did we learn from the latest Google update?
Oh no! Another Google update?
Every time an update takes place, there are many things Google are showing us … or at least, hinting us. Here are some things that I had learned which are the number of backlinks, using the right link building techniques and even using the right search engine optimization methods. And the only way to learn this is by watching those videos posted by Matt Cutts and his team.
So let’s discuss on the proper link building strategies that work for search engines today.
1. Using the right SEO tools for link building
For those who really into SEO, it’s a very known fact that you probably need at least one SEO tool to help you with those ranking and link building tactics. Seriously.
I know many people who uses paid SEO tools like this one are having crazy time trying to create more quality backlinks to their articles. I would say, maybe they are having the time of their lives! 🙂
You might be thinking that, “Hey, take that you !@#$ paid SEO tools!”. Here’s the reality check. These SEO tools will actually … and still be rocking like any other days.
Yes! Let me repeat; link building isn’t dead but it just got tougher. That’s all.
For those who are using various link building tools, well, you just got to play smarter. You need to change the game plan but slowly.
Why? Google still loves quality backlinks and this doesn’t mean that you can’t get the best out of ‘virtual assistance’.
One thing for sure is that using SEO tools will not make you any safer from Google updates. You need to use SEO tools the right way and focus in your strategies. Always remember that misusing these SEO tools will actually destroy your traffic and your SEO ranking.
*p/s Looking at this article length, I’m going to write the so call ‘SEO game plan’ on another post.
2. Write articles for readers and not for bots
Optimize your website for your readers and not for search engines
Link building isn’t really link building only. For me, link building also means website marketing and communications. The more visibility people has on your website, the better chances you are going to create the ‘brand awareness’.
And with that (assuming you write great articles), people are going to share your articles even more!
More shares = More love from Google.
There ain’t any trick about link building and content sharing if you ask me. Write good stuffs, get your name out and let the people (readers) do the rest for you.
What you really need to learn about link building is you can’t get everyone to love your writing or even share your articles. Okay, remember that every visitor who comes to your site is a potential ‘buyer’.
Take the opportunity to get them spread the word for you and how you can possibly do that?
It really depends on how generous are you. For me, I do a win-win situation for my readers. I am using CommentLuv for WordPress and what this plugin does is simple. It allows users to share one of their links after they commented.
Wait! That isn’t all.
For those who share my articles on social media, they will automatically get a DoFollow link back. Sounds good right?
You see, blogging is all about giving and just not taking completely. I see absolutely no reason why one should be so secretive about backlink.
3. The relationship between backlink, social communities and tribes
Recently, I’m very active on several sites such as BizSugar and Triberr. I wasn’t actively sharing my links though. Instead, I was commenting and sharing other articles I felt useful.
The effect? One word: Tremendous.
As I had said about in #2, sharing is caring and there’s no better way than helping a fellow blogger to share their articles. Heard about karma or what goes around, comes around?
Whenever you share an article on social networks, you are creating a good chance for others to visit your website in return. And most of the time, they would probably return a favor by giving a shout (hey, that’s free publicity) for you.
Blogging isn’t everything about yourself. Instead, it is all about relationship building and sharing of information. Grow your audience indirectly by doing good to others.
So, stop being a link whore and start linking out to others!
…
…
…
Yes mate. Right now! Don’t worry, I’ll wait!
4. Link building is closely related to sitemap
You have written an excellent article and you published it. After one week or probably a month, you ain’t getting a hit and you are no closer in creating a viral article that drives hundreds of traffic to your website. So, what’s wrong?
Okay. Here’s the deal. You want to build good traffic, link building etc. You probably won’t go far if you are not focusing enough on SEO. One of the search engine optimizations best practices is to have a sitemap.
Google just won’t put you on first page of SERPs if Google is not aware of your existence. This is where sitemap plays a huge role in your website ranking.
So, yes. The first thing is to get your sitemap up immediately … (moments of silence) …
What’s a sitemap? Site what?
A site map (or sitemap) is a list of pages of a web site accessible to crawlers or users. It can be either a document in any form used as a planning tool for Web design, or a Web page that lists the pages on a Web site, typically organized in hierarchical fashion. There are two popular versions of a site map. An XML Sitemap is a structured format that a user doesn’t need to see, but it tells the search engine about the pages in your site, their relative importance to each other, and how often they are updated. HTML sitemaps are designed for the user to help them find content on the page, and don’t need to include each and every subpage. This helps visitors and search engine bots find pages on the site.
Makes any sense to you? Maybe this image from Google might help out.
Sitemap usually gives search engines a list of links that you have on your website
If you are using WordPress, you can probably use WordPress for SEO (which comes with Sitemap functions) or Google XML sitemap. You won’t wrong with any one of those.
Creating a sitemap is no hassle and you can do that within 5 minutes or less. Once you have your sitemap ready, head over to Google Webmaster Tool and Big Webmaster Tool to submit your sitemap.
5. Guest posting – The pros and cons in link building techniques
We can’t deny the importance of guest posting especially when you are looking for a quality backlink. Writing good guest post will certainly drive traffic to your website without fail but there’s something you need to know first!
Backlink building from guest posting is a double sided blade. Handle with care at all times.
Google and other search engines understand that many bloggers are actually trying to gain momentum and getting some quality backlinks from good page rank sites. When it comes to guest post, there isn’t any difference.
Don’t get me wrong. Guest posting is definitely worth it considering the quality of backlink. However, you do not want to over do it to avoid any penalty. The easiest methods which I see best fit for guest posting are:
Writing quality articles
Use maximum of three links per post
Taking advantage of the rel”nofollow”
Huh? Isn’t that rel=”nofollow” means zero backlink?
Yes indeed. This is my link building strategy. You don’t want search engines to consider your site as a link juice or link farm. Therefore, if the content in the link doesn’t provide quality information for your readers, it is better off with a no follow rule.
Do you understand why I say it as a double sided blade now?
6. The viral factor and link building under one roof
Go nuts … like Holmer!
Have you heard about viral video or viral content? So, what does the word, viral actually means?
For me, it means an action which is hit the world by storm … unintentionally. Here’s an example:
Years ago, a kid made a video to promote his band and uploaded it to MySpace. Sounds like, “duh” right?
The video was about a kid who ran around the garden smashing two Barbie dolls together, throwing tomato source all over the place and screaming the name of his band in a variation of pitches while his MySpace page flashed at the bottom of the screen.
And, guess what?
He received two million hits to his band’s MySpace … in just two days.
The kid didn’t do much … and probably took around 20 minutes trying to clean up the mess he did plus uploading the video.
Viral content, whether it be images, videos or quizzes – has the potential to drive massive amounts of traffic and generate a large amount of business leads or subscribers.
So, what the heck this has to do with link building?
Take the kid’s case study for an example. Do you think that out of the two million hits the kid got, how many people actually share the video or his band?
I call this … indirect link building since … it’s viral and we can’t really control it, could we? I totally understand that there is no possible way to actually create a perfect viral content.
Math lesson: Let’s say you manage (accidentally) create a viral content and it drives you tons of traffic. Do you know how much website traffic you are going to gain?
7. Old fashioned link building techniques. Are they dead?
I read so many articles about changing SEO techniques, so on and so forth. Question is, do you really need the traditional SEO building strategies now?
From what I see it, yes you need them and it is never advisable to ditch them. With all these Google Penguin and Google Panda, it is harder to score points with the old methods. But, each point you earned will worth even more than ever!
Fair deal for you?
We discussed about guest blogging, marketing techniques and SEO tool like this one above. Anyone of these could help you with SEO and this certainly doesn’t prove that ancient SEO methods won’t count anymore. Remember that most search engine optimization methods are based out of the trusted, ancient ‘recipe’.
Since so many algorithms are calculated based on page ranks and number of links, I bet you totally understand where this is heading.
Personally, I would advise you to start changing your game plan. Like me, my approach to SEO is way different than three years back. I even created SEO Blueprints library which consist of every SEO techniques I’m practicing right now.
8. Avoid the BIGGEST link building mistakes
Oh no! Holmer does it again!
For me, the biggest sin you can ever do when it comes to SEO is when you think you had done enough. The truth is … you aren’t able to to completely do SEO.
Why?!
Because SEO is a learning process and it has many implementation phrases. This means that what works today, might not work for tomorrow.
Now, tell me if you have ever (and I really mean e-v-e-r) thought of giving up.
Yes, you thought search engine optimization is too hard and you probably done everything you could. Yet, you’re ain’t seeing the results. People say you need to be patience and you waited for months and still, goddammit nothing happens!
Sounds familiar? Don’t be shy and admit it. It happens to you, to me and nearly every blogger out there. It felt like a never ending war right?
Now, this is the cold hard fact. SEO doesn’t happen overnight and certainly, there isn’t any proven methods for us to judge how far we had done or accomplished.
Giving up hope is definitely a no-no here. Content, article and website optimization are all, ever growing activities which will always keep you on your toes (and for some, might even make you stay awake at night).
Agree to disagree?
Back to you
Wow! This is a longest post (as of now) which I had written! So, how do you like it? If you had read this in just one shot, I’m going to give you my salute. No doubt on that.
As for the topic, these are the top 8 workable link building techniques that we all can practise to build authority and at the same time, traffic. I used these nearly every day and whenever I’m blogging.
What do you think? Tell me what you think and you can easily do it right below.
*If you like this article, could you please share this for me using the red Google+ button below?
