High speed delivered

WordPress 3.2 has proved its speed performance against version 3.1. The changes made under the hood, have resulted in faster download, and posting speeds.

Vibrant Twenty Eleven theme

Named after the current year, version 3.2 revives itself with a theme more vibrant and vivid than ever before. This theme uses an all-new header, which looks livelier in comparison to the previous Twenty Ten theme. The new theme is offered in two versions, light and dark. You can also change the layout of the theme and move the sidebar to either left or right of the page. Color customization is also available.

Detailed admin bar

The administrative bar now features many more tasks while you browse via internet. The basic layout has not been changed. The new Admin bar allows you to make quick links to a new plug in that you have downloaded. You can remove and add these through the ‘Add New’ option. Those who find it too cluttered, can remove the whole bar in customization.

Header image options

The Twenty Eleven theme also provides an option to select various header images. You can upload your own header image in various formats like PNG, jpeg, giff etc. It can be disabled too. Concisely, this theme accustoms itself to your needs.

Distraction free writing

While writing a blog post, one’s attention might get distracted because of the busy writing panel. Distraction free writing will prove very useful to those writers who seek undivided concentration. A short keyboard shortcut ‘Alt + Shift + G’ turns this mode on or it can be accessed by clicking the ‘Full Screen’ icon. This transition from writing panel view to full screen is quick and appealing.

Goodbye to old, hello to the new

The WordPress 3.2 has certain new features that replace obsolete technology for good:
1. WordPress 3.2 does not support Internet Explorer version 6.
2. It would not support Internet Explorer version 7 when new updates are released in further editions and updates.
3. The obsolete technology of PHP 5.0 and MySQL 5.0 is not compatible either.​
4. Many new updates are promised in the near future.
Blogging enthusiasts can keep a check on this version’s every movement at the WordPress trac.

About the author:

Alia Haley is an avid writer, also having a keen interest in getting updated with the latest news on tech help and innovations. She frequently splurges on gadgets and tech apparels and recently bought a cool workstation for herself.

Website and internet technology are constantly evolving into more efficient and more robust platforms. It is important to incorporate new technologies in order to maintain a competitive and marketable internet presence. Redesigning a website should take a few basic factors into account: the platform used, the user experience for visitors, and website host.

Website Platform

There are various platforms that may be used to build a website and programming languages that may be used for the new design. These languages include PHP, static HTML, and content management systems that use a combination of PHP, CSS, Scripting Languages, and HTML to build a new site.

Static HTML websites were the standard for many years in site design. Static HTML requires each page to be built separately, and then get linked together. Changes made to the layout or graphics of a static HTML site must often be repeated on each page, which creates more work and more room for error when updating a website. If a website owner in considering updating a static HTML site, it may be a good time to consider updating the code to dynamic PHP or a content management system.

Dynamic PHP can incorporate a variety of changing elements into a website to maximize the user’s experience and increase functionality. Shopping carts, location based information, and interactivity are just a few of the excellent features a PHP based site can deliver. PHP based sites have risen in popularity over the last 5 years and are now considered the standard in website design.

One simple and effective way to incorporate a robust PHP system into a new site design is to utilize content management systems. Content management systems, commonly known as a CMS, is a pre-built website coding system that incorporates PHP functionality and an administration interface to make changes and updates to a site. Visit the many sites of each of these content management systems to explore the features they offer.

Most Content Management Systems are open source software, meaning they are completely free to install and use on any hosting server. They may also be used for both personal and commercial applications, making them a good choice for any type of website. The most popular Content Management Systems available are: WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla. If a content management system is chosen for the redesign, it will be necessary to hire a skilled designer to theme the website for a professional appearance that matches existing business marketing efforts.

User Experience

The experience for site visitors is essential for success. A website redesign should seek to capitalize on what users liked from the previous site design, plus add new features to improve their experience.

A good place to start to gather data on about user experience is to analyze data from a previous site design. Most websites have some type of analytics or reporting tools installed that provide essential information about what pages users visited, what pages ended up in a conversion, and what content was not seen by visitors. It is relatively safe to assume content that received little traffic and no conversions was not an effective part of the site design.

Many site owners also seek out comments from customers and other professionals during the early stages of a site redesign. It is not uncommon to send out surveys to elicit responses about what visitors liked and did not like about the previous site design. Once this information is gathered, it can be used to drive the changes and updates that are to be made on the new site.

Increased functionality is important to build into a site redesign. If a redesign is using a content management system, there are a variety of plug-ins and modules that will easily and quickly add functionality to a site. This may include items such as contact forms, shopping carts, surveys, polls, and social media integration. Improving the functionality of a site will enhance the user experience and improve traffic over the long run.

Another key aspect of the user experience for a site is the ability to find a website. If a previous site design is already receiving search engine traffic, the site redesign must be focused on maintaining rankings in search engines. Maintaining search rankings during a site redesign should focus on 3 key elements: Content, Page Structures, and Link Structure. A new site should mimic these key elements to maintain current rankings.

Website Host

Having a trusted website host is critical for success. A website hosting company should minimize downtime and provide a high level of customer service and technical support. A reliable website host provides enough server space to house the files the website needs and enough bandwidth for users to be able to effectively utilize the site. Bandwidth will depend on the size of files and how many visitors are received. Consult a designer to get an idea of how large the files are, and what the bandwidth requirements may be.

One of the effective hosting to choose is ASP hosting. This means the hosting company uses servers that run on the ASP.net platform from Microsoft. This allows a website to use server-side scripting (such and PHP) to dynamically present information to visitors. ASP hosting also allows websites to use MySQL databases to store and retrieve essential information for visitors, an essential service for any site.

AUTHOR’S BIO
Chloe Henderson
Chloe Henderson is 23 year old media practitioner who engages herself in the world of social networking, blogging, gadgets and reading. She is also doing some free-lance writing on several web hosting companies, and is currently with webhostgear.com. She loves to write stuffs about anything that would interest her,and sharing it to the world wide web.

For a moment, cast your mind back to when you last read a blog post, chances are you scanned through it picking out the most important bits.

You are not alone, we all do it by default – and I’m sure you’re doing the same right now.
There are many factors behind this, one which I would get into in this post.
Hopefully, this 4 step structure would help retain your readers for a bit longer.

The 4 steps structure is as follows.

(1) Headline

This first towards writing a compelling content is to have a punchy headline. This is what your readers would come in cantact with first either in mailbox, RSS feed, tweets e.t.c
Therefore it needs to be short snappy and to the point. A reader shouldn’t have to think to hard about this. Bloggers tend to ask questions in their headlines, this can prove highly effective as you’re tapping into a similar question that might have.

(2) Opening line

Once you’ve got your reader hooked by punchy headline, next step is to have killer opening line. Opening line is a crucial part of the structure. At this stage probably want engage them with a benefit or a shocking stats. Something along the lines of …
Did you know…

(3) Body

For a blog post, it’s always good practice to keep your content conversational and easy to read.
This may take a bit experimenting to figure out what you and your audience are comfortable with.
Since majority of readers scan, make post scannable. Use sub-headers, bullet points and paragraphs to make your content more readable.

(4) Closing

Always attempt to summarise your blog for the benefit of those wishing to hear  your view, and to give a brief summary those who haven’t read the post at all.
It’s always good practice to include a call to action. What you want your readers to do next.

Have I left anything out? over to you.

I tend to use my phone to jot down blog post ideas/structure and then flesh them out later.
I find that this works for me, as it suits my current lifestyle.

To further increase my productivity, I normally plug in my Sennheiser CX300II earphones and find the hardest inspirational instrument track. This is my cup of tea.

And guess what… once your state of mind is relaxed and comfortable, it reflects in your writing.
I talked about this in greater length in my Build a superstar Blog e-Book – Discover Your Creative Zone.

I am the first to admit, I am not a natural writer – so therefore, as motivation, my environment and state of mind needs to be right.

Some of you may have discovered this already, especially if you’ve been writing a while.
I would love hear how you zone out to blog.

Bad content

First up is Bad content. This is usually information or service you are offering.
If the information inaccurate or poorly presented, this could be a big turn off.

You can improve your writing skills by researching, reading or even getting someone to proof read your stuff.
You may wish to read my post on this subject.
7 ways to writing effective web content

Lack of focus

If your blog offers everything under the sun and not targeted, then no one knows what you’re about.
Rather, be a specialist. Specialise in a specific areas and get known for it.

Lack of traffic

Lack of traffic is another reason why many blogs fails.
What’s the point having the greatest / timely information in the world, if no one is around to consume it.

Work on pulling people in. I have three posts that can help you.
3 Ways to get more traffic this weekend
4 simple ways to attract more traffic to your blog
where your potential readers hang out

Bad marketing

You need understand and master the skill of marketing, it can be the difference between a dormant and income generating blog.
You can have all the traffic in the world, great content, niche blog, but if you can’t get your information out there in an effective way, you could miss out on some opportunities.
Effective marketing requires timely and a strategic approach.

Being in a bad market

Being in the wrong market can hinder your progress from day one.
Finding yourself in a market where audience aren’t interested in what you’re saying or prepared bring out their wallets, is going to be a bit of a struggle.

Rather, you want to find a market with good opportunities and something of interest.
It’s finding the balance between, what is profitable and what you enjoy doing.

…She writes;
It’s easy to get caught up in a blog bubble and assume that everyone we’re interacting with on our blogs are bloggers. Well, yes and no.

Thinking back to my pre-blogging days when I used to get forwards to blogs, and extracts from blogs sent by email. I was always tempted to visit the actual blog and leave a comment. Notwithstanding, for a long time, I was a phantom visitor. I’d visit the blog, enjoy its goodies, and disappear leaving no trace of myself other than being counted as one of the day’s visitors.
But once I did I was enthralled in what the blog had to offer and felt so very much a part of the blogging process by interacting with other readers that I felt like a bona fide blogger well before I owned my own blog.

This goes to show that you use social networking to promote your blog, but what goes a long way is when others promote you as well – you reach an audience you otherwise wouldn’t have reached.

It took a lot to get me to start blogging. And even though I’ve been doing it for a few months, I’m not a professional blogger, I just happen to write my thoughts online where everyone else can read and respond to them –and if they don’t that’s cool, as long as my thoughts are not bottled up.

Looking at the stats of visitors on my blog, I’ve come to embrace the phantom blogger – as a different breed of blogger. Those who’d pop in and pop out and leave no trace of themselves. Thinking about them helps me realise that the contents of your blog are not static, they just don’t sit on a webpage, and it’s got legs and can go really far, you’ve just got to motivate it to explore the world.

So what do you think? Is my Mrs right? Are non blog owners a different breed or bloggers, or should we just leave them in the readers category waiting to make the transition to blogging.

You can now download now this fantastic e-book Build a Superstar Blog

Build a superstar blog is a clever concept of introducing the business model in the music industry and re-applying it to blogging world.

Being a huge music lover, and knowledge of the industry, I simply brought the two worlds together this my e-book. The world of a music artists meeting the world of bloggers.

The same way a music artist goes through the hustle of getting discovered, signing a record deal, developing a fan base and aspiring for superstar status likewise a blogger builds credibility, exposure, a community and ends up being a leader or authority in his/her niche.

Whether you’re a blogging pro or a complete newbie, this e-book throws a fresh approach on blogging from a business standpoint.
I am very confident you will like it.

www.buildasuperstarblog.com

I also look forward to hearing your feedback.

Enjoy

Listed below are a few pointers you should keep in mind

(1) Make it scannable

Users don’t read websites, but scan them for the information they want. Use headings, bulleted lists, and emphasis to draw attention to key points

(2) Be concise

Reading from a screen is much slower than reading from paper, and many users don’t like having to scroll down. Aim to write 50% less text than you would for a printed publication

(3) Start strongly

Summarise the main points of the page in the first paragraph. This could also be stats information relating to your topic.

(4) Be clear

Keep sentences simple, paragraphs short, and avoid jargons

(5) Be friendly

Address the user as ‘you’ and keep the tone warm, polite, and personable

(6) Make links meaningful

‘click here’ gives the user no idea of what to expect, and is of no help to a blind or partially sighted user viewing the site with a screen reader

(7) Write good headlines

This is normally the first thing readers see either via your blog or RSS reader.
- this gets them through the door.

Have I missed any? Over to you

It turns out a large majority of them had a business related blog and were interested in making money online – No surprises here.

Based on research and practical application, there isn’t much secret to it. It’s really down to applying business skills. The same principle you would apply to an offline business would apply to an online business.

So my plan here was to deliver a practical example from a offline business world and apply it to the blogging world.

Being a huge music lover, a former home studio music producer with knowledge of the music industry, I simply brought the worlds together in my e-book. The world of a music artists meeting the world of bloggers.

The same way a music artist goes through the hustle of getting discovered, signing a record deal, developing a fan base and aspiring for superstar status likewise a blogger builds credibility, exposure, a community and ends up being a leader or authority in his/her niche.

Hence the title. Build a Superstar Blog. I would like point out, the main objective of Build a Superstar Blog isn’t to turn you into a blogging superstar.
Rather it’s about
(1) Building the foundations and the right building blocks in place to propel your blog into a leader and authority. It takes you to superstar status then so be it.

(2) Having a clear understanding of your blog and it’s potential to be a perfect platform for developing a business.

The book covers practical examples which are very relevant to today’s blogging community.

It gives a fresh approach to your business blog.

I have also adopted a compare and contrast approach which gives a clear picture of how blogging works from a business prospective. It’s also a fun way to learn.

Who is it for?

Everyone, Whether you’ve being blogging a while or a complete newbie, Build a Superstar Blog throws a fresh approach on blogging from a business standpoint.

It would cater to a newbie that has recently started a blog and doesn’t really understand how to fit it around a business or a blogging pro who is starting to run out of steam and doesn’t see the full picture.

The book is pretty much done, I’m about 90% in, and will be launching in the next couple of weeks.

Are you ready for it?

For most, time with friends is enjoyable and fulfilling, there’s no reason why that shouldn’t be the case with your audience whether you own a blog or a website.

Understand them

Treat your audiences/readers as friends, as a result of this you’ll be able to build a relationship with them.

By understanding them, in time, you are able to know what tone of voice to use and the language they would understand. Interact in a conversational manner, after all, its only a blog and not a government report.

An added benefit of building a rapport with your readers is being able to pre-empt their information needs. The more you relate with them, the more you understand where they are at and what they need to know. This feeds your research and helps you meet them where they are.

So for your next post, make friends with your readers.