I mentioned the two big guns of blogging (Blogger and WordPress) in a previous post about switching from Blogger to WordPress, but I also stated I would breakdown the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org. There are a plethora of articles on this, including a support page directly from the horse’s, er, WordPress’s mouth. However, I’m going to feed you some candor today.

WordPress.com

• For people with little to no blogging experience
• Can get started in several minutes
• Absolutely free
• Will look like a basic cookie cutter blog site

WordPress.org

• For medium to expert level blogger
• Can get started in several hours
• Some costs involved (e.g. domain, hosting)
• Could look like a professionally developed blog site

So it looked like WordPress.com was going to win by a landslide until we got to the last bullet, which makes WordPress.org the winner if you think you’re ready for prime time. It’s really the difference between coming off as an amateur or a pro. I won’t claim that the look and feel of this site (developed in WordPress.org) is the greatest but it also doesn’t look like it was slapped together by someone who decided to start a blog on a whim. (At least I hope not!) BTW, if you think this site is, in fact, the greatest, please let me know.

There are, of course, many other pros and cons, many of which you can read at the aforementioned WordPress support site if you wish. However, I tried to make the decision easy for you.

What platform are you using?

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Picture this. You’re at a casual dinner party and you have a friendly discussion on healthy activities. The next day, your friend sends you a link to your work email address that says “Read this!”. You click it and it brings you to an article that discusses an activity that the two of you didn’t think of the other night. No problem, right?

Well, the title of the article is “Good Sex Is Good For You!” and the article link is http://www.selfhelpmagazine.com/articles/good-sex.php. Uhm, you’re at work! The title isn’t a problem but why couldn’t the link just end in with an article number like 18220.html?

That link is called a permalink. It’s the URL of an article, blog post, or any other page that’s not the home page. How does this affect bloggers? Two critical ways…

• Permalinks should have keywords. It may not have mattered much back in the static era of 1994 but today, your posts should have keywords since they could potentially increase traffic. The right permalink format could tell web crawlers a lot about the page and most search engine algorithms grant higher rank positions for good permalinks. This very basic SEO tactic is one that every blogger should implement. Permalinks with keywords = search engine smiles.
• Permalinks are called permalinks for a reason…they’re permanent! That means if you change a link for your post from http://freebloghelp.com/524 to http://freebloghelp.com/whos-afraid-of-outbound-links, the former still exists in search engines’ eyes even though the content had been moved to another resting place. Dead links = search engine frowns.

So what can a blogger do? Let’s start with getting it right the first time. If you’re using WordPress.org, you’re in luck. Your default post will have a permalink that looks like http://freebloghelp.com/524 so you’ll want to change the default permalink structure. Here’s one way to do it:

1. Login to your WordPress dashboard
2. Click on Settings on the left nav
3. Click on Permalinks on the left sub nav
4. Click the Custom Structure radio button under Common Settings
5. Type /%postname%/

Changing permalink default structure in WordPress is easy

Now you know why that article had “good sex” in the permalink!

If you’ve already started letting your blog platform name your posts, it’s still not too late to retrofit them. Check out these WordPress permalink plugins.

Dean’s Permalinks Migration – With this plugin, you can safely change your permalink structure without breaking the old links to your website,and even doesn’t hurt your google pagerank.

Search Permalink – The Search Permalink plugin redirects HTTP GET requests in the form of http://example.com/blog/?s=foo to http://example.com/blog/search/foo/ may it be from <form> submissions, manually entered URIs, or even old links pointing to search results. It uses WordPress 2.2′s built-in internal permalink interpreter.

Advanced Permalinks – Provides advanced permalink options that allow you to have multiple permalink structures and 301 redirect old permalink structures (many structures are allowed). No longer supported but still works!

Get the cissp tutorial and 70-653 dumps to practice and pass 98-361 test on first try.

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A familiar guest writer today…Melissa Tamur!

If you use WordPress for your website or blog, it’s a good idea to explore the available plugins. Plugins enhance the WordPress experience and can allow you to integrate other important services to expand and publicize your posts.

1) Twitter Widget Pro

Integrate your Twitter feed seamlessly into your blog. Control the timestamp on tweets and decide whether or not to display user avatars. Want high visibility for your tweets? Support for multiple Twitter feeds is included, and Twitter Widget Pro allows you to post your feeds on numerous pages across your site.

2) Simple Facebook Connect

Add multiple levels of Facebook Connect functionality to your site. Publish posts directly to your Facebook profile or Page without having to leave your WordPress dashboard. This plugin also allows you to add a Fan Box widget or Like button; integrate your Facebook stream, status, and activity feeds; and display upcoming events or fan counts. You can even add support for logging in and commenting directly with your Facebook account.

3) Sociable

Get your posts out there with Sociable! Support for 99 different social bookmarking sites lets your users share your blog or site all over the web. With Sociable, you can display as many or as few social bookmarking options as you wish, including a button to allow users to share posts via e-mail. If you can’t find the site you want, it can be added directly to the plugin code with ease.

4) Find Me On

Connecting with visitors and readers is more important than ever as social networking grows. Find Me On works with up to 73 social networks. By displaying your profile icons in the sidebar of your site, it allows people to find you, friend you, or contact you no matter where you are. Support for more networks is being added all the time, so if you don’t see your favorite social networking site, you can contact the developer and request that it be added.

5) Advertising Manager

If you use ad networks to generate revenue or support your site, this widget lets you control up to 15 of them from one place, including Google Adsense. Advertising Manger makes it simple to import and manage your ads. Place ads in your sidebar; integrate them into your post templates; or limit the types of ads that are displayed depending on a post’s author, tags, category, and more.

These plugins can help expand your WordPress site and publicize your blog across the web. The ability to control all of your social networking and advertising in one place makes it easier to connect with users and build a strong following.

Melissa Tamura reviews prepaid cellphones for PrepaidCellphones.net. Her latest review looked at Tracfone.

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About a decade ago, I worked with an interactive agency and one of the add-ons to our offerings was what we called an admin tool. We sold these left and right because there was a need for business users to update content, such as adding copy/images or introducing a new product, and they didn’t want to rely on an actual developer for these minor edits.

Since that time, Content Management Systems (CMS) have replaced those types of admin tools. In fact, CMS has allowed many business owners to self-serve so even the least tech savvy users can get by with little to no help. I’m not saying that we can cut professionals out completely but the point is, almost anyone can have something — how good it is is another story. (A perfect example is that anyone can use a pencil but the actual picture drawn with it can vary drastically depending on the skill of the user.)

There are so many CMS choices today: from free (Posterous) to low monthly fees (Typepad – under $10/mo.) to crazy expensive (Vignette – over $200,000!!!). What I’d like to do with this article is compare some of the more popular free CMS offerings: WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal. Keep in mind that when I say ‘free’, although you’re not paying for the CMS platform, there may still be costs such as domain name registration, hosting provider fees, and maybe even some design and development investment.

I know, here comes the peanut gallery about WordPress being a CMS. It’s like saying Excel is a database which is always open for interpretation and interesting arguments (I’m on the side that Excel is a database, even though it’s not a relational databse). Sure, WP started as a blogging platform but it has evolved into a pretty robust CMS over the years. So much so that when small businesses look for a CMS for their websites, WP is often on the list of potential candidates!

WordPress

Why it’s awesome
It doesn’t get any easier than this! If you’re looking for something that’s realtively simple to use, read no further. That said, you still have to know your way around admin interfaces a little bit. And if you want to make your site look different from the plethora of cookie cutter ones, get ready to do some fine-tuning. The best part is the incredible number of plugins that are at your disposal and the vast support community that can help.

Why it fails
WP isn’t a great tool if you’re looking to have total control like you would with a blank sheet of paper. It starts you with a framework to build off of, which is a great thing for some, a not-so-great thing for more techie folks. It’s also not as mature when it comes to ecommerce as Joomla and Drupal.

Joomla

Why it’s awesome
Joomla gives you a lot more customization options than WP with just a slightly greater learning curve.

Why it fails
The development community is lacking compared with WP and Drupal. The good news is that you don’t have to be as technical as someone who uses Drupal. The bad news is that if you’re stuck, it’s possible you’re on your own.

Drupal

Why it’s awesome
This platform can do just about anything and has an amazing support community.

Why it fails
You better be willing to pay for a tool that can do anything. Not in money but in time! Drupal requires a bit more technical knowhow than Joomla and it’s a mountainous technical gap from WP.

CMS Wrap-Up

It’s impossible to pick a winner here since it really depends on your needs.

In short, how savvy are you? In order of simplicity, WordPress is probably best for the “every-man”. Joomla is for those who are a bit braver, looking to do a bit more, and have graduated beyond minor code edits. Leave Drupal for the advanced folks who are looking for a challenge who also happen to be control freaks.

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Today, we have a new guest poster. Let’s welcome Thomas Sinfield!

For those of us who are using WordPress as bloggers, we already have a great SEO advantage.

WordPress has been designed to make search optimization easy, but if you really want to ramp up your SEO efforts than there are few plugins that will really help you out.

1.All-In-One SEO

This is the first plugin you should get as soon as you install WordPress. I know there has been a lot of discussion here about whether to use All-In-One SEO or Platinum SEO. In the end it really does come down to personal preference, but just get one!

2.Google XML Sitemaps

If you want the search engines to make sure they come back and check for new posts then you need to make it as easy as possible for them. the Google XML Sitemaps plugin allows you to quickly set up a sitemap for your blog and set the rules for Google to abide by. You can then import this sitemap to Google Webmaster Tools if you use that.

3.SEO Smart Links

This is one that I have only recently come across – and cannot wait to upload and get working for me. SEO Smart Links helps you automatically link between your blog posts. This is done by you specifying certain ‘anchor text’ and the post you would like to link it to, and it will automatically find all the times this keyword or phrase is found on your blog and change it to a link to your post.

4.Broken Link Checker

If you want to make sure that your WordPress blog is totally optimized then you need to fix or remove and broken links that are leaking your PR juice. This is also important from a usability point of view because you want to make sure that visitors are not getting sent to outdated posts. Broken Link Checker does exactly what it’s name says, it monitors links in your posts and pages and notifies you on your Dashboard with any broken links.

5.NoFollow Plugin

Then to totally optimize your blog, you don’t want to be leaking juice to certain outbound links (affiliate links, etc), so you can use the NoFollow plugin to individually choose which links to make nofollow and which to make dofollow.

While SEO isn’t solely based on on=page optimization, these 5 plugins will make a great start for any blogger looking to increase their search engine traffic.

Thomas Sinfield is an internet marketer and blogger that teaches people how to conduct their own SEO services. To learn more visit his SEO blog.

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Believe it or not, Frugal has just celebrated its first birthday. It seems like Frugal has been around much longer since the theme has made such a big splash in the WP theme community. Those of you who have been with me for a while know that I’ve been a Frugal theme fan from the beginning. In fact, this site used to be on a Frugal theme and I still use Frugal for another site of mine.

I’m not a product-pusher like many other MMO blogs but I don’t mind putting my stamp on a product, service, or person I believe in. In this case, Frugal meets all three.

The last time I mentioned Frugal was when Frugal 3.0 was released around Thanksgiving last year. Earlier this month, the Frugal team announced its latest version, Frugal 3.5, and it’s pretty amazing. Take a look at the updates:

• Rearrangable Admin Page Option Boxes: The same flexibility and power you’ve come to expect in the options of your Frugal-based sites has been brought home to the admin interface. Each box of option sets is now draggable & sortable, collapsible & expandable. You can organize your admin pages however you want, with your essential options always visible and at the top of the page. The best part is, Frugal automatically remembers how you leave everything, and it will be there waiting for you no matter what browser or computer you log in from.

• Frugal Theme Admin Menu has moved ‘Above the Fold’: With 3.5, we’ve decided to carve some space out for ourselves between ‘Comments’ and ‘Appearance’ in the WordPress Admin Sidebar. Not only does this save users on lower-resolution screens from needing to scroll down to see the menu, but it’s a subtle way of demonstrating that, with this release of Frugal 3.5, we’re on our way to the top!

• WordPress 3.0 Compatibility: We’ve done extensive testing to ensure that Frugal is ahead of the game and ready for the upcoming release of WordPress 3.0. As WordPress evolves from a simple blogging platform to a robust Content Management System, Frugal continues to give you maximum control over your site. The most exciting new WP 3.0 feature, in our opinion, is the fully customizable Navigation Bar. Once you upgrade to WP 3.0, all you need to do to enable the new navbar on your Frugal sites is to flip a switch.

• WordPress MU / 3.0 Multi-User Enabled: Another exciting aspect of WP 3.0 is that the WP Crew has folded WP-MU into Core. Frugal has worked with WP-MU for quite some time, but we’re pleased to see that this feature is going mainstream. We’ve done some testing with Frugal and WP 3.0 Multi-User, and have been highly impressed. If you manage a multi-user site, by enabling Frugal and setting the Dynamic Styles to PHP mode you can let each and every sub-site have its own appearance with just one installation of Frugal! This is a perfect use for skins from our skin store. You can get thousands of unique looks with a single theme.

• Refined image inputs: With Frugal 3.5, we’ve removed the need to type in the names of your uploaded images into the options pages by hand, and replaced the old textfields with drop-down menus showing all available images. This should prove to be a big timesaver — no more “Did I call that file bg-header.png or header-bg.jpg?”

And that’s just some of the new stuff. Let’s not forget that Frugal:

• Has over 600 custom options
• Has built in SEO
• Is designed for developers and non-developers

I don’t endorse too many products and Frugal is the only theme I promote. I’m not saying there aren’t other great premium themes (Thesis, WooThemes, etc…) but personally, I really love Frugal.

Anyway, go check out some of the examples of what others have done with Frugal. I’m always amazed at how creative some of those are. Of course, I would prefer if you use my Frugal affiliate link.

Oh, and let me remind you that I used the word affiliate, which means I may get compensated. Don’t let that stop you since I’ve been writing about Frugal way before I was even an affiliate. Go get Frugal 3.5 today!

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Last week, I posted a question that a new reader had for me. She basically wanted to know whether or not to switch her PR3 wordpress.com site over to a wordpress.org. Oh, and in case you were wondering, I asked her permission to post it on here.

Here’s essentially how I responded to her:

First, congrats on your stats!

In hindsight, it would obviously be a much easier decision if your site was newer. If it was me, I would switch over.

Although it may be painful in the short term, I would like my own domain for the long haul. I would look at it as an opportunity to do things better a second time around and treat the first site as an incredible learning experience.

If you’re planning on hanging around for a while, cut over now. The longer you wait, the harder the decision will be.

Many of you were spot on: she should make the switch! Although some hobbyists could simply keep the site and be totally content, it does not make sense to stay at wordpress.com. Among many reasons, you should want to own your own content and showcase your own domain.

She already purchased the domain so she was obviously already leaning toward that decision. All we did was provide an awful lot of reinforcement.

As one visitor mentioned, she should also be leveraging her wordpress.com site to help accelerate her new site’s growth. I would use the wordpress.com site to provide a ton backlinks so it will add related-content support and give it some PR juice. Don’t we all wish we had a head start from a PR3 site when we first started!

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