However, the question that pops out is whether or not it is possible for a ghost blogger to earn some bucks. There in no doubt that, these days most of the blog authors wish to have unique and quality content for their blogs. For that purpose, many bloggers are even willing to provide handsome rewards to efficient writers.

Ghost Blogging: How To Make Money Without A Blog?

Now, people who love to write would certainly be interested in ghost blogging. If you have a craze for writing, you can contact bloggers who are in need of ghost bloggers. This is a great way to earn some good bucks if your writing skills are more than average.

Why Writers Should Consider Ghost Blogging?

If you can provide quality content as per the demand of the blogger, it is really a good way to earn money without any investment. However, one should keep in mind that content buyers always look for specific type of content, and you should remain prepared to deal with any type. Below are a few of the most common topics that are in demand now:

1) Tips on using Facebook and Twitter as social media platforms.
2) Topics regarding WordPress, Blogger & Zoomla technologies.
3) Topics related to green energy, solar power & LED lights.
4) Sports technology especially soccer, rugby & baseball.
5) Articles regarding eTicketing, tour management and event promotion.
6) Articles on small business such as business networking, entrepreneurship and evolution of small businesses.

However, you should keep in mind that each blogger has specific rules. If you want to successfully earn some money through blogging, you should first consult with the blogger regarding his/ her specific requirements and only then proceed.

If you don’t have, create an online banking account and a Paypal account to receive payments on time. Further, make sure the amount you’d receive on each article. Lastly, what you shouldn’t forget.

If you want to become popular as a ghost blogger, you should always remain focused on your article’ quality and not on what you are getting as reward.

Have you ever tried earning extra income via Ghost Blogging? Have you ever hired a ghost blogger to pump articles  into your blog, during time when you were going through a phase of ‘writer’s block’? Share your comments and express your opinions with us.

At least, when it comes to my nutrisystem and medifast diet blog I currently get 99% of my search engine traffic from Google alone, while the other one percent comes from all the other search engines.

How To Get Free Traffic Using Google

The name Google is the first name that comes to the mind of most people when people talk about “search engines“, and any blogger who is very smart will quickly realize this and as a result leverage it for effective results.

I have been studying how Google works for years now, and as a result I’ve been implementing the tips I learned on my medifast and nutrisystem diet blog, and in this article I will be giving you a few tips on how to use Google to grow your blog.

Focus on Your Content

Do you know that Google currently considers around 300 factors before trying to rank any web page? I know that is a huge number of factors showing that nothing is certain, but in reality one of those factors is certain, and that one factor is your content.

Over the years Google has changed how it ranks websites, it has introduced a lot of changes in how it calculates links, and it has also disabled and introduced a lot of new factors. Of all those factors, the only factor that wasn’t affected is content.

What this shows is that Google still does, and always will, respect great content, so it is very important to start focusing more of your efforts on delivering the best of your content if you really want to get results from your blog.

Realize that Links Influence Google Rankings a Lot

Another thing you need to realize in other to get the best from your search engine optimization efforts is that Google places more importance on links to your site compared to other search engines. As far as Google is concerned, links control the web.

Most search engines today rank your websites based on majority of factors, but unlike other major search engines like Yahoo and Bing that focus on on-page factors, Google places more strength on the number of links to your blog and the quality of those links

Capitalize on Existing Rankings

One thing I’ve observed based on years of optimizing my medifast and nutrisystem diet blog for the search engines is that it is easier to move to page one for keywords I’m already ranking for compared to ranking for a new keyword.

In other words, Google places more importance in ranking you more for a keyword you’re already ranking for. The best way to effectively use this is to capitalize on existing rankings. So instead of having to target new keywords, try to look for keywords you are already ranking for and focus on improving your ranking for them.

Guest Author: This is a guest article from John who gets thousands of visitors daily from Google, and is always happy to share how he does that. He blogs about discount coupons for health products like Medifast and Nutrisystem. His best articles give nutrisystem coupons and medifast promo code.

But it simply isn’t enough for a blogger to receive tons of organic traffic — unless you can make those visitors ‘stay‘ on your blog by providing them with ‘related content‘ from your blog they will soon leave your blog and move on; thus attributing to a ‘high bounce rate‘.

Since, many bloggers or website owners struggle to increase their number of page view it is a good idea to add a related post WordPress widget bellow your article, since they are often effective in increasing page views and lowering bounce rate. This is where nRelate Related Content plugin comes in.

nRelate Plugin Helps Reduce Bounce Rate and Show Related Articles on Your Blog

From the plugin page:

“nrelate is not just another related posts plugin. Our patent-pending technology continuously analyzes your website content and displays other related posts from your website. This ultimately leads to higher page-views for your site, and a better user experience for your visitors.”

nRelate Related Content Plugin (for WordPress) Features:

- nRelate related posts plugin is not just visually appealing but it has more interesting features and benefits as well. Some of the more obvious benefits of using this plugin are: it helps you engage readers, increases page views, lowers bounce rates and helps you turn casual one-time blog visitors into regular returning visitors.

- The customization of this plugin is so easy that the plugin fits perfectly with your blog’s frame and style (CSS). They even have a large number of thumbnail themes to select from.

- You can also set the plugin to show related content from other sites. That’s pretty cool if you have a network and you want to keep your readers on your own sites as long as possible.

- If you have not placed a photo in your post, you can set the plugin to display a default photo. Nrelate gives you the option of thumbnail size also, from 100 pixels up to 150 pixels.

- You can enter your own ‘related posts‘ title like ‘Check out these awesome articles‘ or can change the text to whatever you want.

- It is absolutely spot-on in generating accurate related content and thus helps your visitors in seeing content related to what they are reading/searching. Hence the readers might stick around a while longer and browse more of your articles.

- nRelate is not your average plugin, it comes with a service from their side that spiders your entire site and analyzes all the content, so it can not only show related posts, but really show related content from all over your site.

- On the plug-in dashboard page it shows you its progress and on the settings page you can determine whether you want to show related content with image and text or with just text, and also what size the image should be.

- However, the thumbnail for related post might not appear on your blog immediately because it takes some time to index all your blog posts and pages. But once the indexing is done, it is immaculate in displaying laser-targeted related content for your articles.

- They have a completely optional nRelates ad network to make money through . You can turn off the ad feature at any time.

- As an added benefit, because of the increased page views, you can also expect to see a sharp increase in your Adsense revenue.

Overall, the nRelate plugin works very well and does everything it says. Don’t believe us? Then ditch LinkWithin (or any other related posts plugin that you might be using right now) for a week and take nRelate for a test ride and be amazed.

If you are a Blogger or planning to create your own blog or interest to earn some extra money then this article can help you out. You might be aware that you can make money from blogs. But are you wondering how?

If you’re interested in making money blogging – blogging for bucks, here are top ad selling strategies that could turn your blog into a moneymaker. Here is the solution to your problems that will help you earn considerable amount of money via blogging.

Generate Blog Traffic:

Your primary task will be to get more blog traffic in your blog in order to sell advertising space in it. If the traffic is less then you will not be successful in your attempt to make money. When people visit your blog then the product you are advertising will be available to many visitors.

Create a Great Landing Page:

You can focus on making money if your blog has high traffic then you can convince many people to promote their product on your blog. When you plan to make online money then ensure that you have a successful landing page.

The details of the scope of advertisements on your blog are on the landing page so it needs to be effective. If anyone requires detail about advertisement in your blog can check from there.

Create Related Content That Advertisers are Looking to Promote:

If your blog has high visitors then people shall seize the advertising opportunity. This will also give you a scope to make money easily and without giving much effort. You can do an extensive research on topics that can hold the attention of the readers.

If you can provide articles related to interesting topic on your blog then you can attract more visitors in your blog. You can acquire more information on how your competitors make online money from their blogs.

Track and Share Accurate Traffic Stats:

Make sure that you provide accurate information about the statistics of your blog without any factual error. Try to include information like the number of unique visitors each month according to compete.com, page views to your blog, Alexa traffic rank and Google Page Rank, etc.

You can also incorporate RSS feed subscription, social and e-mail subscribers to your blog as it will be beneficial for you.

Therefore, keep the above mentioned points in mind when you plan to make money by selling ads on your blog.

Sometimes, though, that’s not an option. Those of us who use the internet to work must learn to live, like a bartender with a drinking problem, side by side with temptation.

Even the ‘just turn the broadband off’ school of thought most likely need to use a computer, at least now and then, and that means they could also benefit from some of the best and proven anti-procrastination tips (techniques) below.

So without further ado, we’re all supposed to be doing something else after all, here are our three top picks.

1. Use a Distraction Free Desktop

Distraction-free desktops keep computers screens minimalist so that you can avoid seeing the nagging things on your desktop you haven’t got done yet and, hopefully, stop that nagging feeling stopping you work, too.

Ommwriter and Focuswriter are some of our favorites – they’re both just very simple word processors with all the functions available through keyboard shortcuts.

For distraction-free reading try the Readability download, it turns every site crowded with links and sidebars into a clear page of black type on a white background. Much easier to concentrate.

2. Keep Track of Your Time Online

If lists and time management really help you to concentrate there’s a wealth of software online to help with that.

Many rely on you adding extra time for organization to your day, though, which could just give you another task to procrastinate to avoid.

RescueTime is one application we know of that manages to sidestep that: it monitors the web sites and applications you use so that you can see how you’re using your time and set goals to do things faster as you go on. Also, look for these 15 signs to tell if You are Addicted to The Internet!

3. Obtract Keeps Procrastination to a Minimum

Finally, at Obtract.com there’s a smart little download that recognises the necessity of procrastination but helps you stop it taking up your whole working day.

You choose the sites or applications that are major distractions – Facebook and Twitter are bound to be up there, isn’t it? – and the software allow you five minutes an hour of your treat.

After the time’s up, you’ll have to do a maze to keep being distracted and the longer your procrastinate the more difficult the puzzle will get. The puzzle is meant to wake you up to the fact that you’re getting distracted so that you can stop.

Guest Author: This is a guest article from broadband deals site Choose, which covers UK broadband including BT infinity.

Just like a blog (or a website), an RSS feed also needs marketing and promotion. Increasing your RSS feed subscribers will widen your reach. You need to invest enough effort and time into promoting your RSS feed. The following are some proven guidelines for promoting your blog’s RSS feed.

RSS Feed icon

Make sure all your web pages have an RSS feed icon. The icon should be obvious, as well as visually appealing. It should be situated ‘above the fold’, meaning that that visitors should be able to see it without having to scroll down, up, right or left. The icon should be included in all a site’s web pages so as to enable visitors to subscribe no matter what page they navigate to.

Make Use of RSS Feed Directories

Submit your RSS feed to different RSS search engines and feed directories. Many people visit RSS feed directories to find topical feeds which would be beneficial to them. Being list in such feeds can help you attract a fresh audience who are always in search for a better blog.

Publish a Press Release

Send a press release pronouncing the availability of an RSS feed for your website content. In the release, you could briefly describe what sort of information the feed contains, and explain how the feed can be of help to interested individuals.

One-click Subscription

Make sure your RSS feeds have a one-click subscription option. This will enable your blog visitors to subscribe easily and quickly.

Announce RSS Feed Availability

Make use of all communication channels to inform people about the availability of your RSS feeds. Details of your RSS feed should be included in email and forum signatures. Remember to make a mention in product or company newsletters. Such announcements have been effective in promoting the RSS feed in blog.

Educate and Explain

Though some people understand the capabilities and powers of RSS, other might not. Make sure you help visitors to your site understand how they can subscribe to RSS feeds, and how this can benefit them. A little education  for your blog visitors can help you increase your RSS subscribers significantly.

RSS content

The following are some guidelines in regard to feed content.

- Offer quality content which is relevant to your subscribers. To retain the attention of your readers, you need to make sure that your material in interesting.
- Your RSS feed content should focused. Make sure your feed’s theme is narrow and concise.
- Make sure you regularly add new content to your RSS feed
- Avoid inserting self-serving content and ads in the RSS feed. Use advertising sparingly.
- Regularly examine your logs to find out what content is popular with your readers. When you discover what is very popular, you could create additional content which goes deeper into the subject of interest.

Also Read – Top 7 Tips on How to Increase Comments on your Blog Post

Author Bio: This guest post is contributed by Charles Mburugu who often writes about internet marketing and e-Commerce. He also blogs about coupon deals at discount blogs that share webhostingpad discounts and register.com coupons. He is currently writing for a coupon site that offers webhostingpad promotional codes and register.com web code.

If you’re in a services business, blogging about aspects of the service you provide can help to educate your potential customers about the challenges involved; and “help” articles provide a free resource which keep people coming back. Similarly, If you’re into product business and selling to consumers, the topics you choose to blog about can help to build your brand identity. Here is top 5 most important reasons why you need a blog for your business success:

Everyone Is Searching Online

Most people are searching online, and a large proportion of people use the internet as their only form of inquiry, when searching for products and services. It has become even more prominent since mobile internet has become popular, and it has brought easy and portable access. It makes the most sense to be present where most people are looking for your products or services and if you do it right, you can get tons of free web traffic via your blog.

No Technical Requirements

It may seem like an overwhelming prospect, but in reality very little technical understanding is required. With WordPress, setting up a business blog can be as simple as getting yourself a quick haircut. Once your blog is setup and running, the ability to make updates to the blog is easy to learn. This is as simple as using email.

Business Branding

People often judge your business, based on how your blog looks. A well designed and functional blog would reflect a professional image of your business and will help you build a credible online presence. It immediately establishes credibility and this is often going to be the first impression of your business. This promotes your brand very effectively, and can significantly grow your business.

The positive attention and these value-based, long-term experiences don’t just create trust. They also help to create a stronger, better brand and in turn a stronger online reputation. This leads to word-of-mouth advertising, which is one of the best forms of promotion you can get.

Become More Competitive

You will most likely discover that your competitors already have a better blog. Then your potential customers are searching online and they are able to explore your competitor’s blogs but you are not findable at all.

Be Accessible Round the Clock

Since your blog is always online, it works while you sleep. People can access your blog 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. People can contact you, and access all the functionality at any time.

Informed and educated visitors become confident, loyal customers. More people are turning to the internet to research before they buy. You can position your company as a go-to resource, thereby winning more business.

Social Networking

Many businesses have realized the value of social media. Facebook and Twitter being the most important social networking blogs today. But promoting your business on these sites is not enough. It need to be complemented with a blog. This is because after finding you on Facebook or Twitter, the next time they look for you they will search for you on a search engine, which is where you would want your blog to be found and when the customer wants to buy your products or services.

Guest Author: This is a guest article by Mitchel Xavier who is a Sydney Website Design and web development specialist.

If you ever find yourself in such a situation, you should not give up. It is not difficult to attract traffic and to get loyal readers if you just keep on blogging. If you are wondering how to get massive traffic from Google to your blog/website, the following are some methods that can be used to attract blog traffic.

1. Make Use of Your RSS

Most blogs come with inbuilt RSS capabilities which you should take maximum advantage of. You need to make it easy for visitors to subscribe to your blog, so that you can attract the blog traffic that you require.

2. Build Links From Other Sites

Search engine spiders navigate and index websites using links. The easier it is to be found by the spiders, the easier it will be to attract blog traffic and therefore increase your search engine ranking. It is that simple.

3. Write and Syndicate Articles

Blogs and websites alike are hungry for content. If you are able to deliver this content on regular basis, you will begin to attract traffic daily. However, you need to make sure that the content being offered is relevant to your specific niche and audience. Irrelevant content will only put off your readers. Also learn how to write ‘Search Engine Friendly’ content without annoying your (human) readers.

4. Comment on Other Relevant Blogs

Blogs are designed to operate like conversations. If you have some insight that you would want to contribute to other people’s posts, make sure you leave a comment. Remember to include a link to your website and your email address. By participating in conversations in other people’s sites, you will be able to drive traffic to your own site.

Commenting in other blogs is a strategy that I use often to generate traffic for my blog which features ediet coupons and weight watchers discounts.

5. Keep Blogging

The more content you create for your blog, the more readers you will get. Blog readers are always looking for new and fresh content and information. If your blog provides it continually, they will keep returning for more and more. Content is a very important element of the blogging process. When your blog lacks fresh and relevant content, readers might not find you, and if they do, they won’t have any reason to stick around.

If you apply the strategies outlined above, you will see a significant increase in your blog traffic within a short time.

Guest Author: This is a guest article by Charles Mburugu who often writes about internet marketing and e-Commerce. He also blogs about coupon deals at discount blogs that share weight watchers discounts and ediet coupons. He is currently writing for a coupon site that offers weightwatchers coupon code and ediets coupon code.

There is a fine line between content that is reader friendly and content that is search engine friendly; learning how to strike a balance between the two together is one of the keys to obtaining high Search Engine Rankings. If you’d ask me, writing for humans first and then considering the search engines is the way to deal with this matter.

What Does ‘Writing Naturally’ Mean For ‘SEO Copywriting‘?

Content, in the form of articles, knowledge bases and blogs should be keyword rich, but not over-saturated.  Over use of keywords is something that search spiders will look for in your textual content. In fact, spiders are on the lookout for ‘word stuffing’ or pieces of text filled with too many keywords. And it can mean doomsday for your site/blog if you are trying to trick search engines by stuffing keywords into your content.

So if old hat optimization is considered over-optimization and/or is potentially detrimental to your SERP rankings what do you do? Here are some tips for writing searching engine friendly blog posts or news stories that every website should use. Not all of your blog posts have to be directed at search engines, but to rank on specific keyword phrases you should write at least some blog posts with equal attention towards keyword phrases.

Top 10 Best Tips For Search Engine Friendly Natural Copywriting

Without further ado, here are some tips to help you write articles and blog contents that have a balance between targeted search engine bots as well as are equally appealing (natural looking) to your regular human readers:

1. Use an Interesting and Unique Article (Page) Title

Admit it or not, your article’s headline is the first thing that can make or break your chance to grab reader’s attention. You have got about 15 seconds time during which a potential search engine user looks at your article and tries to make sense out of it – if your article title is well-written and if the reader is able to identify his needs with it then you can expect him/her to continue reading the whole article; otherwise, the visitor will simply ‘close’ your article and move along (and will probably never get a chance to stumble upon your site again).

So it is absolutely important to write a unique and interesting article title to turn a casual passerby into a serious reader. Here are some nice tips to write attention grabbing article headlines for your blog posts.

However, just writing a good article title is NOT enough. Your web page that contains your article must also have a good headline. Interestingly, the page title is something that appears in the top left corner of the browser window. You and your human visitors may not be keen on looking at the page title (in the browser title bar) but it is something that most search engine spiders look for while indexing your content. So make sure to assign a unique page title for each page you create. If you are unable to assign page titles via your CMS install an SEO plugin that lets you do the same.

2. Use H1 tag and Use Primary Keywords in Your Article Page Title

Most search engines use a maximum of 70 chars for the article title. So make sure that you have included the ‘most natural’ variation (translation) of your primary target keywords in the page title. And ensure that the main heading on your page uses a H1 tag. Most WordPress themes by default do his on the fly. However some themes uses a H2 tag instead for the article page titles, which is also OK but not as effective as the H1 tag.

3. Collect Your Keywords Wisely

When the so-called SEO experts talk about ‘keyword density‘, most of them forget about the ‘keyword quality‘! It is absolutely important to research and determine ideal keywords for your topic based on supply and demand. Use keyword tools like Wordtracker or Micro Niche Finder to brainstorm for popular keyword phrases. Search in Google to determine the supply/competitiveness of the keywords. Find high demand and low supply keywords. And while you are at it, you should probably also do your homework keeping the long tail and short tail keywords in mind.

4. Format Your Article Ensuring Easy Readability

Remember that people generally scan web pages looking for simple answers. So long and complex sentences/paragraphs will tend to put them off. Also try to break up the text using bulleted or numbered lists where relevant. This is really important for your users as it is important to keep the content digestible if you want to keep people’s attention.

You may think that this is not important for the search engine spiders. But after Google’s recent Panda update, it has become clear that things like easy navigation, an uncluttered web site (blog) design and good readability are things that Google (and other search engines) have started taking into consideration while ranking a web page.

5. Write ‘Link Magnet’ Articles

Lot has been talked about writing ‘pillar articles‘ and ‘link bait articles‘ as an effective methods to attract backlinks. So basically while writing, in addition to formatting visually appealing copy (bold points, lists, useful sidebars, etc.), think about writing article pieces that other bloggers from your niche will want to link to, will want to save to their social media bookmarks, and tell others about. For example, take a look at the homepage of Digg or Reddit. You will notice that the posts are straight to the point (i.e. right now an article entitled “Google+ scares me” by Market Watch is on the front page of Digg.) To know more, check out our Top 10 Link-Building Tips for Your Blog!

6. Use Descriptive Alt Tags On Your Article Images

As they say — pictures are worth thousand words. So you should include images in your articles where ever possible and when you do so, you should use alt tags. Alt tags are basically short descriptions (mainly intended for the search engine crawlers) that let search engines know what is in the picture. And make it a point to use your keywords in your image alt tags but don’t try to overdo it. Try to keep them relevant to the content of the picture and you can expect some good traffic from Google’s image search.

7. Use Different Variations of Your Target Keywords

‘Keyword stuffing’ is possibly the surest way to jeopardize your article’s SEO success — so do NOT do it. Instead, select 1 to 2 main keywords for each article based on high demand and low competitiveness. Then create a list of several keyword phrases to target in current and future updates. Once you have the list, use those keywords in the article name, titles, the first sentence and the last sentence. Repeat the keywords and synonyms a few times throughout the article; but NEVER overdo it.

8. Use CSS (Div) Instead of Tables

When the search engine bots view your article page code, the content should come first before sidebars and other junk that will reduce the relevancy of the page. CSS is the solution to this. You can place content below a menu visually, but above your content up in the source code. In addition, HTML code should be used as it was meant to be used. For example, the title of an article should be in an H1 tag, other less important subheadings should be in H2 and so on.

9. Keep Your Keyword Density within 4%-6%

Calculate the keyword density by dividing the number of keywords by the number of total words. Aim for a 4 to 6 percent density. Edit the article for quality content for reading that also has a good keyword density for the search engines. Add keywords or edit down the word-count to increase keyword density.

10. Write for People NOT Robots

This is probably the most important of all. Write something that people want to read — whether it be informative, educational or entertaining. TO know better, read aloud your article before publishing it. If it sound ‘natural’ and yet informative then your readers would also feel the same. As a rule of thumb, a great article is the one that your human readers as well as the search engine spiders find interesting. Hence, if you want to get higher search engine ranking, target the humans and the robots will follow!

Over twenty million blogs (and websites) are powered by WordPress since its inception in 2003. This open source project allows many to share their thoughts, grow their businesses and connect to followers online. What started as a single line of code has grown into an entire content management system where users can customize their sites completely with plugins, widgets and various themes.

As we all have limited amounts of time on this earth many of us have better ideas to spend our time relaxing on the couch watching movies rather than freaking out about endless lines of meaningless code. Learn how to use a few of these WordPress post-installation tips to make your blog leaner and meaner.

1. How to Reset a WordPress from phpMyAdmin

Your WordPress blog can get hacked. It happens to the best of us, and when it does happen, it is essential to know how to reset the password from phpMyAdmin in order to stop the damage from continuing. Follow these steps before a hacker can rip apart all of your hard work.

Step 1: Find out the name of your database. Go to your WordPress Directory. Locate the wp-config.php file. Click on the file. In that file you will discover the name of your database.

Step 2: Go to the Admin panel in your MySQL database. Click on phpMyAdmin and select the name of your database. Once you are in the phpMyadmin look for the prefix: wp_users or whatever prefix you assigned it in the installation. Select the prefix.

Step 3: Click on the “Browse” tab on the left side of your screen and then click on the pencil icon to reset your password. A field will pop up and you can enter in a new password using a MD5 generator (WordPress does not allow plain text passwords). Copy the password and paste it into the value field. Save and you’re done. Your blog is now protected.

2. Add Some Personality to Your Blog

Do you have plain blog? If your readers yawn in boredom when they look at your site, it is time to freshen it up with personality. Do these things to make your blog look more attractive to readers.

-Add a favicon to your blog. Follow our simplest method to add a favicon to your WordPress blog.

- Add an avatar to your username. When you post a picture and simple byline about yourself or about another author posting on your blog, it will go a long way. People like to match a face to a name.

- Incorporate pictures, graphs, videos and other images. Be visual. People like color and pictures to help explain the concepts you are discussing.

- Limit your blog’s theme to no more than three colors. Four is zany, three is manageable. Don’t scare your readers away with a kaleidoscope that is too hard to look at.

- Use BIG fonts. Keep the font a sans serif, such as Arial or Calibri. Make the font large enough to see easily to avoid squinting and eye strain.

3. Make Your WordPress Blog Faster

Maybe you have installed a bunch of WordPress plugins to doodad up your blog. You might like how it look, but have found that it is now moving at a snail’s pace. Here a tip: get rid of the unused plugins. That cool drop-down thing, or flashing, moving, icon thing might be cool for a couple of months, but if it isn’t contributing to the health of your blog, cut it. Keep the essential plugins to keep the site organized and kill the rest. The plug-ins insert added coding, making it longer for your blog to respond to a user’s request.

Coding can be difficult, but you don’t need to know a lick of it if you can follow a few simple steps to cache your queries. Caching allows your server to make shortcuts, which reduces the number of queries, bogging down your blog. Put this little bit of code in your wp-config.php file (that’s the same one you used to find your database name) and save it.

// Enable the WordPress Object Cache:

define(ENABLE_CACHE, true);

Voila! You have got a meaner, leaner and faster blog. Your readers will be happier at the faster load times, and you will be happier with the increased traffic.

4. Highlight the Author’s Comments

While you should get rid of the unused plugins in your WordPress blog, a good one to hang on to is the Author Highlight plugin. This allows you to change the color of your comments, distinguishing you as someone different from the rest of your readers. This plugin makes it easier for readers to identify and follow conversations. Find the plugin at: WordPress Plugin Directory (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/author-highlight/)

5. Use a Relative Date Plug-in

Relative date is a term that describes the date in general or relative terms. So instead of dating a post with numbers, you can install a plugin that says “4 days ago” or “1 week ago” or whatever time has lapsed since you wrote the post. This plugin, while not essential to your blog, does make it easier on the eyes. Find it at: WordPress Plugin Directory (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-relativedate/)

Bonus Tips: Subscribe Your WordPress Site to a Monitoring Service

Keep an eye on things without checking the vitals of your blog every few minutes by using a monitoring service. Also known as a ping service, these sites will alert you when your website goes down. Some offer trouble shooting help and performance reports on the specifics how your website is running. Consider using these monitoring services to keep track of what your site is doing, even while you are away from your computer:

1. Mon.itor.Us
2. Pingdom.com
3. Watchmouse.com

Remember, incorporating even a couple of these tips will improve your blog, making it look better, work faster and become more enjoyable for your followers. Using these tips will allow you to still be lazy, but lazy with a purpose.

Guest Author: This is a guest article by Sierra Dawson is a social media advocate with CreditDonkey, a US-based small business credit card comparison website.