Blogger, WordPress or TypePad are just a few of the more popular blogging platforms. While there are several different blogging applications that are free, most bloggers find themselves in the world of WordPress. There are many good reasons to choose WordPress over the competition, including open source content management and SEO ability. If you find yourself trying to decide which is right for you, here are some everyday reasons to use WordPress as your blogging platform.

1. Personality Zone – WordPress is all about you. There are hundreds of free themes available to personalize your blog spot and provide an Internet presence that represents who you are as a writer.

WordPress themes are flexible and can be customized to your niche audience and product line. Best yet, if you get tired of the skin (theme) you have downloaded for your blog zone, simply change it by downloading a new theme. With a simple click of a button WordPress moves your content to the new theme for you.

If you want more sophiticated themes, check out the top premium wordpress theme sites:

• StudioPress
• Woo Themes
• Elegant Themes
• Thesis Theme

2. Plugins! Plugins! Plugins! – Get the idea? Plugins are another way to customize your blog space. Popular plugins include contact forms, site statistics, search engine optimization, and photo resources. WordPress currently offers throngs of free plugins and is adding to their plugin resources daily.

3. Pagination – Back in the early days of blogging, blogs appeared as online diaries with one post following the next and comments intermixed between. With WordPress you can actually create pages to separate your material or to provide additional information.

Maybe you have a blog on homemaking, home repair, and recipes. Each of these could be placed onto their own unique page, making it easier for your readers to find the information they are looking for.

You can also create additional pages such as ‘Contact Me’, or ‘About Me’ pages. This functionality also makes WordPress the perfect platform for businesses, not just bloggers!

4. Performance – Believe it or not, not every blogger is an expert at web design. Creating your own website or presence can be a daunting task for anyone. WordPress provides easy to use functionality with a built in dashboard to help manage your sight. Also, because of its popularity WordPress has many resources available to their users including online forums, help references, and support teams. Best yet, if you just want to try blogging out for a bit before you invest in your own domain name, WordPress allows you to register your blog on their site for free.

5. Permalinks – When you create your blog, you want the world to be able to connect to that specific blog quickly. Alas, permalinks. For every blog you post, WordPress creates a unique permanent link to that specific blog.

6. Ping Back to Me – What is auto pinging anyway? It is a tool that allows you to notify the search engines that you have posted a new entry. By simply adding the correct plugin and adjusting your settings, WordPress has the ability to ping your blog automatically.

7. Pathways Back – Have you ever commented on another person’s blog? Many times the blog will only post your user information when you leave a comment, but if you use WordPress and you are commenting on another WordPress blog, then WordPress has the ability to automatically provide a link back to your blog for anyone to see. A great and free tool to increase your readership.

This is only a small list of reasons bloggers choose WordPress to host their blog. Ultimately, you need to choose the platform that’s right for your needs. Keep in mind, WordPress prides itself on being one of the most user friendly platforms and is constantly striving to make things better for users.

]]> http://jordannilsen.com/top-7-reasons-to-use-wordpress-as-your-blogging-platform/feed/ 0 http://jordannilsen.com/search-engine-optimization-and-why-you-gotta-use-it/ http://jordannilsen.com/search-engine-optimization-and-why-you-gotta-use-it/#comments Mon, 22 Dec 2008 07:58:32 +0000 jordan http://jordannilsen.com/?p=141 E-commerce is a cut throat business. You have to arm yourself with the proper know-how and the tools to make your site a cut above the rest. Each day, more and more sites are clambering to optimize their rankings in websites and if you lose your guard, you may just get trampled on and be left in the abyss filled with so many failed e-commerce sites.

Search Engine Optimization or SEO is a term widely used today by many e-commerce sites.  For the past few years and the next ten years or so, search engines would be the most widely used internet tool to find the sites that they need to go to or the product or information they need.

Most people that use search engines use only the ten top search results in the first page. Making it to the first page, more so to the top three is a barometer of a sites success in search engine optimization. You will get a higher ratio of probability in being clicked on when you rank high. The more traffic for your site, the more business you rake in.

But, it is essential to grab a hold of that spot or make your ranking even better. As I aforementioned, each day is a new day for all e-commerce sites to make them selves rank higher using search engine optimization. It is imperative to make your site better and better everyday.

So just what is search engine optimization and do you have to use it? The answer to why you have to use it is an easy one. You need search engine optimization to be number one, or maybe at least make your site income generating.

With search engine optimization you can get the benefit of generating a high traffic volume. Let’s just say you get only a turn out of successful sales with 10 to 20 percent of your traffic. If you get a hundred hits or more a day, you get a good turn out of sales already. If you get only twenty to ten hits a day, you only get one or two if not any at all.

So once again, what is search engine optimization? Search engine optimization is utilizing tools and methods in making your site top ranking in the results of search engines. Getting yourself in the first page and better yet in the top half of the page will ensure that your site will generate public awareness of your site’s existence and subsequently generate more traffic, traffic that could lead to potential income and business.

Search engine optimization requires a lot of work to be fully realized. There are many aspects you have to change in your site or add as well to get search engine optimization. These will include getting lots of information about the keyword phrases that are popular in regards to your sites niche or theme.

You may also need to rewrite your sites contents so that you could get the right keyword phrases in your site without making it too commercial but light and informative. There are certain rules and guidelines to be followed with making your site’s content applicable and conducive to search engine optimization.

You will also need to collaborate with many other sites so that you could get link exchanges and page transfers. The more inbound and outbound traffics generated by sites among others are one of the components search engines uses to rank sites.

Try to search the internet for many useful help. Tips, guidelines and methods for search engine optimization are plenty to be found. Read many articles that can help you optimize your site in search engine results. The more knowledge and information you gather the better. This will all help you in getting those high rankings. This may require a little time and effort in your part but the benefits will be astounding.

If you can part with some money, there are many sites in the internet that can help you in search engine optimization. There are many sites that help in tracking keyword phrases that can help your site. There are also some content writers that have lots of experience in making good keyword laden content for your sites that have good quality.

Act now and see the benefits garner with search engine optimization. All of these will result to better traffic and more business for your site and company.