If you’re using blogging as one of your strategies for your Network Marketing business, I recommend the use of WordPress.org as the platform for your blog. A blog is just another kind of website, except that it’s much easier to create and update than an ‘ordinary’ website. Creating a web page using WordPress is almost the same as writing an article in Word for Windows or another editing application. In this article, we describe five reasons why you should use WordPress.org for your blog.
Two main kinds of platforms for creating a blog are:
1) A “Server Side Web Based” application completely controlled by your Web host and by YOU. Examples of these are WordPress.ORG, MovableType, TypePad and others. It’s important to have this kind of blog if you’re doing business on the internet, because it will become your asset, and can’t be taken away from you. In contrast, the web based applications can be taken away from you with no warning, and you won’t ever get it back again.
2) A “Web based application” which is controlled by the web hosting community. Examples of these are Blogger, WordPress.COM, Wetpaint, Mindsay and numerous others.
Following are Five Good Reasons to Use WordPress.org
Reason Number 1: The Search Engines love WordPress blogs
With just a little knowledge about keywords and search engine optimization, it’s VERY easy to get listed on Google for your keywords.
The best way to have Google index (have it listed in Google) your new WordPress blog, is to submit your blog’s RSS feed to some search engines. Don’t worry about what an RSS feed is, if you don’t know. You don’t need to know what everything means, you just need to know what to do with it.
So, after you create your blog and your first blog post:
- Type in the URL of your blog in the Address Bar of your Web browser (preferably Firefox).
- Once your blog is displayed, look to the right of where your URL is typed and you should see a little orange box.
- Click on the orange box and your web browser should open up the RSS feed of your blog. The text displayed may look like gobbledegook, but don’t worry about that. The search engines can interpret what’s written for the RSS feed.
- Copy that RSS Feed URL and Paste it into Notepad or your favorite Text Editor.
- Now, go to Feedage.com and Submit your Blog’s RSS Feed URL you just copied into your Text Editor.
- Now go to Feedagg.com and Submit your Blog’s RSS Feed URL you just copied into your Text Editor.
The next day – after submitting your feed as described above – Look in Google’s index to see if your Blog is listed. To find your blog on Google:
- Go to the Google Search Engine at Google.com
- In the Search box, type in the following:
site:yourblogurl.comΒ (replaceΒ yourblogurl.comΒ with the URL of your blog)
After clicking on the Google Search button, your blog URL should be listed, which means that Google has indexed your blog. This means that your blog will be positioned somewhere in the Google listings.
Reason Number 2: Using WordPress will save you lots of time
WordPress will save you a lot of time for the following reasons:
1. It is really fast and Easy to install. WordPress takes about 5 seconds to install instantly, provided you are using a hosting company which allows you to do an instant installation. Make sure you get a web host that has “CPanel” – if the web host has it, they will state that it has CPanel on their Feature page.
2. It has an easy to use administration interface, which allows you to find things quickly and work more efficiently.
3. It’s very easy to upgrade. Most of the time, you can just click on the “upgrade button” and WordPress will install the upgrade automatically.
4. It is super easy to keep track of comments and moderate, approve, and disapprove of them.
5. There are applications that you can simply “plugin” (with a few clicks on your mouse) to your blog. These applications are called “plugins” and allow your blog to easily do all sorts of other things, such as back up your database, make comments look different, allow for social interactivity like “tweeting your posts” or “sharing a post with Facebook”.
6. Save yourself a lot of time by preventing spam. Use the plug in Akismet and WP-spam free, and you won’t have any spam. (or very little anyway).
7. And, another huge time saver – you can write your posts in advance and schedule them for the next week or two. So… you could just log into your blog once a week, set up your posts, then relax or go on holidays.
Reason Number 3: Search Engine Optimization is provided by WordPress
WordPress makes it VERY EASY to do Search Engine Optimization. Here are some simple tips for making sure your content is optimized on your Blog.
1. Find out what keywords your target market is typing into the search engines, then use those Keywords in your Blog Post Title.
2. Make sure your Categories consist of keywords, and select a relevant Category for each of your posts. Select only ONE category for each post, otherwise you will get Duplicate content.
3. Use a Custom structure for your Permanent Links. A Permanent link is the URL for a blog post. The Permanent link (also named “Permalink”) consists of your blog name, the category, and the blog post title. For example, the URLΒ shouldΒ look something like this: YourBlogName/Category/PostTitle – however, if you don’t select a Custom structure for your permalinks, they may consist of numbers and meaningless words. This drastically reduces the chances of your post appearing in the search engines, when people type in your keywords.