Here in Highland Park, New Jersey

This morning I upgraded from 2.7 to WordPress 2.8. It was so easy — just a click on a link and done in less than a minute. Supposedly, there are new ways of dealing with tags. In particular, I noticed that tags now have a box for description, which can come in handy for search engine optimization (SEO). Categories already had the description box. Click on “Post Tags” in the Admin panel to see.

Theme editor has been a focus of the new version of WordPress. It is now easier to switch in and out of themes.

Someone on Twitter reported there may be some bugs with the new widget editor; it may not drag and drop properly.

Looking forward to playing with the new features soon.

Posts on WordPress 2.8 to explore:

• Official WordPress Video (find out why it is named “Baker”)
• Custom taxonomies in WordPress 2.8
• What are “custom taxonomies”?

Do ever check your blog statistics and say, huh? That’s what people searched for and found my blog?

One of the most common search terms on my blog seems to be dogwood. OK, so at one point I took a couple of great shots of my neighbor’s dogwood tree in bloom. But that’s the most common search term? Another highly ranked search term is hawthorn tree. I’ll have to accept that one; I did spend a fair amount of time photographing and researching the lovely red berry tree I found around the corner until I was informed it was a hawthorn.

Do you want a little more control over your best keyword, your best link? Here’s an idea that may or may not work.

In the comments, post your favorite link on your blog. Or your favorite link on my blog. Or on your friend’s blog. (You have my permission to post more than one link – but three would be spamming – just to set limits to this little game).

Alternatively,

list 3 keywords that you actually searched for in Google (or some other search engine).

Or do both the link challenge and the keyword challenge.

Next week, I will craft a post (or two or three) that includes a few of those posts. I will then write up some descriptions that have keywords that are in those posts. It will be interesting to watch one stats to see if this has any effect. Of course, if others do the same (if you take three of the posts people liked and write up a post about those posts, including keywords in your title tag and your description), we may see better results. If you do decide to write a post to emphasize certain keywords, please use those keywords in the title tag. Title tags are one of the most important sections in a post that search engines use to determine relevance and ranking.

Regarding the three keywords that you used to search in Google, it would be fun to craft a post based on those keywords. A bit like paper bag dramatics, no?

Last night I participated (a bit) in my first Tweet Chat. What’s a tweet chat? A group of people (Twitterers) decide to “meet” at a set time and use a hashtag (such as #sbbuzz) to connect. And chat.

What is #sbbuzz all about? First of all, that # sign in the front means it is a hashtag. You will see hashtags all over Twitter. Hashtags are a sign that this may be a topic of interest to others in the general Twittersphere. Anyone can create a hashtag. #sbbuzz stands for Small Business Buzz (and that link will take you to the sbbuzz blog). You can also follow sbbuzz on Twitter. #sbbuzz chats are held every Tuesday night, 8pm–10pm EST (I think that should be EDT now, but it says EST on the blog).

How did I find out about the Tweet Chat? Much thanks to NJinsuranceGirl for tweeting about #sbbuzz. I found NJinsuranceGirl (Kacy Campion Renna) because jerseybites recommended her on Friday for #followfriday (what’s #followfriday? That’s a whole ‘nother topic: go on Twitter on any Friday and you’ll see lots of these #followfriday tags that are suggesting people to follow on Twitter). I met jerseybites in person last February when I attended a TweetUp. Last night, when I was nowhere near my computer, NJinsuranceGirl sent me the following helpful link via Twitter: http://sbbuzz.biz/instructions. I got on late (at about 8:50 pm EDT, and they had started at 8 pm), and I spent the first ten minutes reading those instructions and trying to figure out the best way to access it all.

What was discussed at the #sbbuzz chat? The topic this week was Insiders Tips for Small Businesses on Twitter. sbbuzz tweeted these questions during the course of the two hour chat:

• Q1. What advice would you give a small business owner brand new to Twitter?
• Q2. What should businesses talk about? What are businesses doing on Twitter?
• Q3. Any good resources for Twitter how-tos, reference guides, etiquettes, etc?
• Q4. Is your local community (govt/academic/private) doing anything to promote entrepreneurship/small business? What is working?
• Q5. How do you find time to stay involved, engaged and contributing to online and offline networks?
• Q6. How many social media networks do you actively participate in? Do connections overlap? How do you keep track?

There was more, but you get the basic idea. I felt since I was new to the “party,” I mostly read what others had to say (and I picked a few to follow regularly), but I did tweet this in response to Q6: “Q6 Social Media networks: Twitter, my own blog, Facebook – I’m on LinkedIn, too; much overlap because of my own blog. #sbbuzz”

Want to know what people had to say? For a while, this will be available by going to http://search.twitter.com/ and typing #sbbuzz. But if you are looking at this post on May 27 or later, you will see the #sbbuzz for that week. A summary is now posted at http://sbbuzz.wordpress.com/2009/05/21/small-biz-tech-advice-resources-may-19-2009/.

Have you ever participated in a Tweet Chat? Used a hashtag in Twitter to follow a topic with others? How would you answer any of the above questions? What questions would you ask?

This blog is done with an installation of WordPress on my own site. Why would one choose to set up one’s own installation of WordPress, instead of doing one on http://www.wordpress.com/ or http://www.blogger.com/?

PROs:

• Control – I decide on the plugins and the styles. I can tweak the code if I like. I can customize a theme.
• Ownership – photos, text, other content – no question of ownership on a self-hosted blog. No waking up one day to find out your blog was banned by Blogger or WordPress.com (it seems this has happened to others).
• WordPress offers good spam protection with Akismet. You can also get this on WordPress.com, but you can’t advertise on WordPress.com, so you have limited choices if you want to monetize your blog.
• Integration with the rest of your site (if you have a “rest of your site”) is seamless. Same domain, easy to click around. If your blog is on a separate site, this weakens your search strength.
• More control over commenting: I set up nested comments and Subscribe to Comments. Others have used a plugin that gives a person five minutes to edit a comment.

CONs:

• Too Many Choices – some people don’t need or don’t want all the options in life.
• Upgrades and installations are done for you.
• Blogger has some nice widgets that I haven’t seen on Wordpress blogs. (But then WordPress has widgets not on Blogger, and you could write your own – or could you?)
• Cost – One does have to pay for web hosting and domain hosting. But if you are a serious business, the costs are minimal (You can get a free domain for life with a good web host that is only about $100/year).
• Moving an already existing blog can get technical and detailed.

A middle ground between the two choices might be to put your blog on WordPress.com initially, when you are starting, but buy your own domain name. That way, if/when you do decide to switch to self-hosted WordPress, you won’t lose your readership, because they will automatically be re-directed to your new blog when you re-direct your domain name.

If you are in business but not technically-oriented, you can choose a web hosting company that offers a lot of technical support. And you can pay a technical person to optimize your blog for searches, customize your theme and do updates. Although updates on WordPress have gotten SO easy, that this is no longer an issue to deter someone from installing WordPress. The admin panel is easy to use, too.

Did I miss anything? Questions?

Other bloggers on this topic:

• 8 Reasons Why self hosted wordpress blog is better then blogspot blog
• 10 Reasons to Self Host Your Own Blog
• Self-Hosted Wordpress Vs. Blogger.com: A Newbie’s Perspective
• WordPress vs. Blogger
• Blogger vs Wordpress: Which is best for SEO and How Does Self-Hosting Fit Into the Equation?

As most of you will be unable to attend our social media networking lectures at 3 libraries on 3 Thursdays, I am providing the handout I distribute in a pdf document at right. Feel free to print it out and give it to your friends or colleagues. This post includes the links on the handout and more.

Would you like to convince a friend to try blogging or Twitter? Did a friend take one look at Twitter and say, what do I do with that, and give up? Here are twenty links that might keep them around the social media networks a little longer:

Twitter Links

• Twitter Search
• 13 Twitter Tips and Tutorials for Beginners
• Ten Things you Must Know before Using Twitter
• Twitter Basics for Librarians
• Twitter for Chiropractors and Other Health Professionals
• Beyond #FollowFriday: 24 Daily Twitter Memes
• PC Magazine’s Top 10 Twitter Tips for Beginners
  Lots for the newbie: RT or ReTweet, DM or Direct Messaging, Search
• The Ultimate Guide to Everything Twitter
  Includes: Twitter Basics, Twitter Etiquette, Get more followers, and a Twitter Glossary
• How To Provide Your Twitter Followers With Massive Value
• Twitter SEO – How to Optimize Your Website For Twitter Search
  Keywords, brand yourself, build relationships, add links to articles

Blog Links

• Ask a Question: 10 Reasons Why Questions Work & 12 Tips on How to Ask Them
  Look for other 31 Days to Build a Better Blog posts
• How to Start a Blog for Fun or Profit – Introduction to a Series
• Top 100 Law and Lawyer Blogs
• How to Setup a Blog for Your Chiropractic Practice
• Learn How to make your Blog Search Engine Optimized
• 8 Photo Memes to Improve Your Photography Skills
• Blog Carnivals: Submit Your Post to Connect with Others
• Artist Blogs: Why Every Artist Needs a Blog
  How having an artist blog can help you sell more art
• Blogs Help Women Make Purchasing Decisions
• How one blog comment can bring you 230+ unique visitors

Do you find any of these links useful for your own needs? Or do you think they might help a friend? Feel free to leave a comment on any posts that you find particularly helpful.

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