A Trip Around The World – Another Week in Review

(Reading time: 5 – 8 minutes)

The first week in November 2009. Amazing.

>>>NOTE: Catch “Upcoming” below for new comment policy, etc.

On the InterWebs

We’ll start close to home. Here’s an OK video on WordPress permalinks. His scheme is fine, certainly better than leaving dynamic URL structure. But what all these SEO experts don’t seem to understand is that just about any particular “SEO-optimized” scheme to increase index ranking (Drive Traffic!) is at the complete mercy of whoever controls the search engine algorithms. Which is why I don’t worry about it over much. Good content in your article trumps everything else long term, dynamic URL or no. (You can find such pages easily on StumbleUpon.)

On a related note, the /%category%/%postname%/ convention, which I like, is deprecated as being too slow on lookups. Whence the obvious question: “Why not change how lookups are done?” Exactly. There’s an issue on the WordPress development Trac pages somewhere. You can dig it up if you’re interested.

Off to Australia: Josh Kohlbach provides us with very short, concise article on shared versus dedicated hosting. If you have visions of problogger-ness, you need to understand this difference, because you’re going to have to have dedicated hosting to handle enough traffic to make money. This especially important if you’re selling to a list: if you can’t handle traffic spikes, you’re dead meat.

Next stop, Philipines, where Elmot shares his passion for blogging. Elmot’s passion is contagious! Check out the Pinoy Sounding Board. Learn something.

From England, via Julie’s comment on Ittybiz, never forget, it’s just the internet.

And back to Texas, where Blake Waddill gives us some Feng GUI. So much to know. Just when I think I have it all figured out…

New articles

First, do you like to share recipes? If so, the new version of hRecipe Plugin for WordPress was released earlier this week. This version features an improved editing interface for adding recipes to your WordPress Posts and Pages.

Check it out: hRecipe is in the feed at Planet WordPress, coming in from the mention at Weblog Tools Collection.

(Alexa *cough* planet.wordress.org)

Here’s the posts for the week:

• Post Titles, Page Titles & Title Elements – Why POSH matters: If HTML title and header tags confuse you, you’re not alone: they are confusing. But they matter, and here’s a fast way to understand why.
• Big Shakeout Coming in MMO Blogosphere – You ready for it? Too many blogs & bloggers, not enough readers. What’s your plan to survive a readership crash? Do you have a plan? Get started now with these suggestions.
• Top 5 Biggest Lies About Blogging for Money: Some people make a lot of money blogging, you could be one of them, just done believe the hype! Read more to make sure you aren’t falling into these 5 traps.
• Despite Best Efforts of Online Marketers… You Are Not An Idiot: Everyone says write to the lowest common denominator. But is that your natural style? Consider writing congruently, and let your natural audience find you.
• Black Magic SEO! Vampire Weekend sucks SERPs: Find out what Vampire Weekend and Website In A Weekend have in common… ’s not what you think (what are you thinking anyway?), the answer is amazingly stupid.

Update! Update! Update!

The process works, Website In A Weekend is getting some vampire luvin’:

Getting some Vampire SERPiness. Fair is fair!

• Twitter Redux – Making Sense of Social Media Madness: Twitter frustration can be cured… with simple application of common sense, manners, and application of the twitter golden rule.

Updated posts

Added a link to a superb article on teasers by Demetris at op111 to WordPress Excerpts Are Not Teasers.

This is still a good read, and I’m going to keep bugging people to read it.

From the Archives!

Back at the end of last May (2009), I attended WordCamp San Francisco. One of the sessions I attended was hosted by Dave Gray of XPlane.com. This was a fantastic talk, and I took enough notes to write How Building a Web Presence Is Like Fishing In The Rain. Use the magic math of compounding to get ahead and stay ahead. Find out how little it really takes to dominate… if you’re willing to “fish in the rain.”

Upcoming

A brief look into the near future…

• Andrew Caldwell (Self-proclaimed Leader of the Free World) recounts jumping into blogging… he took the plunge all at once! Coming to a browser near you on November 9 2009.
• Commenting: Watch for “dofollow” commenting in the near future. Just a time thing for me to root out a decent plugin and make it happen.
• Along those lines… watch for one of those “Reactions” hoohas. Seems like all the Big Boys are implementing “Reactions.” Far be from me to swim against that current. (I’ve got other currents to swim against.)
• No more Sunday articles! I don’t mind working on Sunday, but I have other projects needing more attention.

The WIAW Week In Review Series

Last WIAW Week in Review

Put Your Pity Party Week in Review. You feelin’ sorry for yourself? Sorry to hear it, and we’re here to help. Check out the blind boy who uses echo location. Inspiring. More good stuff inside.

Next WIAW Week in Review

News of the New – Another WIAW Week in Review. Lot’s of new bloggers roaring onto the scene. Prize winners too! Check it out, another WIAW Week in Review.

Tagged as: Blake Waddill, Blogging, Elmot, IttyBiz, Pinoy, POSH, SEO, Twitter, Week in review