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

[corpfan1]

Hey there,

Just started using Wordpress to create a new BLOG.

BIG FISH POKER CLUB BLOG

Not sure about Wordpress features and such, so any advice/help is appreciated on how to spice it up...add graphics, banners, etc...

Also, how do you get people to READ your blog?...do you just keep posting and hope it gets picked up/found/searched, etc...or is there a way to get others to read it?

Just never really dibble-dabbled in blogging before and want to use it as an effective affiliating tool as well as posting my views on stuff related to poker and my experiences.

Thanks!
Chris

[Graham]

Hey Chris,

I would suggest getting a custom header done, or if you can, do it yourself.

As for how do you get people.... Google loves wordpress so just keep posting regularily (as much as possible) and google will keep crawling. Here is a bunch of things you can try:
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_b..._get_traf.html
http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/20...c-to-your-blog
http://www.blogherald.com/2004/11/25...c-for-newbies/

I can see you have some SEO things done for your wordpress site, but in case you haven't this site is pretty good:
http://seo.blorc.com/seo/wordpress-seo-first-steps/

Blogroll with other people... exchange links on one another's blogs.

Also, I like to have my blog posts show up on my homepage, so try and get an RSS reader to update the homepage with fresh content.

Look into feedburner... I am still trying to figure it out, but it has a lot of features on managing your RSS feeds. You can send emails each time you update the blog to subscribers as well as know how many people are reading your feed. (I may be wrong about some of this, but like I said, I am still learning)

[SunPoker.com]

Corp..

Almost anything you can think of has a plugin that can be used to spice up your site. Just take some time to really figure out what you want on your site and do some searching for Wordpress plugins that will help you achieve your goal. Plugins are easy to install and most of them are pretty easy to use.

http://codex.wordpress.org/Plugins

Mark

[AceHigh Pino]

Mark definitely summed it up.

Graham's links are really helpful as well. If you just google anything "WordPress" -- like widgets, themes, plugins, etc....you'll find A LOT of good stuff to add to it. I'm still learning the ropes as well so I know I've been doing my fair share of research on it.

[Graham]

Just be careful with some plugins... they could be a potential security hole. I don't exactly know how, but I just don't like to run code on my server that I don't know exactly what it is doing.

[J S]

I think you'll really like wordpress the more you use it, it makes sharing unique content easy. If you're looking to spice it up, get your own header done and get it in your template, find a few good plugins and write good content that is visually appealing to those searching for it.

You can try new stuff out for banners and or features on your sidebars by just creating a text widget that essentially takes raw html to put in whatever banner / image / youtube video you want, and they are easy to move around.

[corpfan1]

Thanks so far everyone..your tips/ideas are great...definitely enough to get me started!

CHRIS

[Randy]

One way to get traffic to a blog is to read other blogs and mention them in your blog posts. If you're talking about other poker blogs, they'll start talking about you. I don't think that should be your only content, but it's certainly an ingredient.

I'm a big fan of search engine traffic. The more content you add, the more potential visitors you'll receive.

[Kyle]

I'd recommend hosting the blog on your own domain.

[corpfan1]

That would be nice...but, it is so easy to edit and publish a blog with tags etc... on Wordpress.

Are you sure this is better than using something like Wordpress?