My new BLOG in Wordpress...not sure how to spice it up?

[NewPokerGirl]

This is a very good thread with lots of great ideas...I'm gona be getting into wordpress soon...godaddy lets me install wordpress with a click of a button for free so thank god I don't have to figure anything out. Incase you missed this it John is offering a very nice theme here

[corpfan1]

My hosting allows me to install....

b2evolution
Nucleus
pMachine Free
WordPress

Which one is best?

How does this work....? Does it just put a page somewhere on my website which becomes my blog?

Just curious as this is all very foreign to me at the moment!

[NewPokerGirl]

I would say WP is the best for a general poker blog...but I don't really know much about the others. You will just have to make a folder for it..for example:

xwww.xxx.com/blog or /anythingyouwant..but you can just make it xwww.xxx.com if you want. Once you get it installed you log into it and you can start blogging.

...I dont know about your hosting company but for mine, all I do is click "install wordpresss"...it asks me what folder I want it to be in (/????)...then boom , it installs. God, I'm probably not making any sense right now....hope I helped though

[haynesey]

Originally Posted by NewPokerGirl

This is a very good thread with lots of great ideas...I'm gona be getting into wordpress soon...godaddy lets me install wordpress with a click of a button for free so thank god I don't have to figure anything out. Incase you missed this it John is offering a very nice theme here

That features called "fantastico" makes life much simpler with installing scripts.

[haynesey]

Originally Posted by corpfan1

My hosting allows me to install....

b2evolution Nucleus pMachine Free WordPress

Which one is best?

How does this work....? Does it just put a page somewhere on my website which becomes my blog?

Just curious as this is all very foreign to me at the moment!

Stick with wordpress, follow the instructions its REALLY simple installing the script you just choose where you want it installed, i.e as a www.yoursitesblog.com or www.yoursite.com/blog

Then you can login at www.yoursitesblog.com/wp-admin or www/yoursite.com/blog/wp-admin then just play around with it. Wordpress is really really simple to use, and incredibly easy to modify.

[kaus]

Not related to this thread but this page gives me pop ups for cpanel username and password. I have to hit cancel twice for it to go away...only when I hit the 2nd page

[haynesey]

same here kaus.

[Georgia Poker]

I'd like to second the recommendation for FeedBurner, I used that on my old (now sold) Mike Matusow Blog and loved it. That blog ranks GREAT now for Matusow related stuff.

[J S]

found a good free poll that works with wordpress, www.polldaddy.com

[GCPguy]

Wordpress installed on your own domain is def. the way to go. Like others have said Google loves blogs.

And with the amount of developers who are constantly working on new plugins, widgets, and themes, there is plenty to spice it up.

I've been working on a wordpress checklist in an effort to start streamlining my future websites. And then teach others to do the same. Here are a few things from my initial list.

1. Install Wordpress
2. Search for "seo wordpress theme" choose and install a "seo'd theme" (unless you already have a strong background in CSS and SEO in order to customize any template you like)
3. Put a good Robots.txt file in your root folder
4. Build a good custom 404 error page
5. This is a basic list of recommended plugins (obv. you have to find your own unique combination that works best for your site, goals, etc)

1. MyBlogLog Widget
2. Akismet
3. Google Sitemap Generator
4. Show Top Commentators
5. Related Posts
6. WP-Contactform
7. Popularity Contest
8. Adsense Manager
9. Sociable
10. Feedburner Feed Replacement

The next item in my list is to start figuring out what categories you want to use and any static pages like contact us, about me, etc.

Hope that helps a little!