Your Blog Tools

I would like to share with you three quick ways to get more eyeballs on your blog this weekend.

[1] Share your expertise

Run a quick Q&A session on Twitter and help someone who has a question.
You can do this by finding tweeted questions related to your market.
You’ll be surprised how much people would appreciate a helping hand.
So go ahead, jump on Twitter and search for typical questions such as :
- How do I…
- How can I… in wordpress

[2] Email your list

• Give them a quick update of you’ve been up to
• Find out how they are doing?

Also, Keep them informed of any latest news on your blog.

[3] Do a quick video post.

This doesn’t have to be anything fancy.
Just a quick hello along with quick tips.
Videos are very powerful, and bring you closer to your audience.

What are your 3 tips for this weekend?

Is your blog’s performance beginning to dip?
Does it takes ages to do the simplest of tasks?
Chances are, your blog needs a health check.

With a growing blog, comes the responsibility to meet its needs and demands.
Blogging platforms are great, however, they also tend to use up a lot of resources as they grow – it’s just their nature.
So therefore, to keep the ship steady, regular maintenance is essential.

On this blog, I’ve had a few blackout moments, when everything grinds to a halt, nothing seems to work, and in most cases, I’ve had my hosting company to thank, for placing me on a dodgy server (145) hmmm.
It’s still an on-going process in my quest for better performance.

Why is My Blog Running Slow?

There could be many reasons for this :

• Traffic Levels.
• Growth/size of your blog.
• The size of your images.
• Badly written codes.
• Too many components.

What is Slowing Down my Blog?

Well, the answer to this is relative. It really depends on your setup.
That said, there are tools that can help you identify some problem areas.
Pingdom is free service that provides information of how long your web page takes to load, and also breaks down what actions are being performed and the time taken.
This detailed stats would give you some indication of areas that may need attention.

How Do I Increase My Loading Speed?

There are several approaches you can take to solve this problem, they range from optimizing your blog, to drastic ones, such as changing web host.
I would recommend doing some general house-keeping FIRST before considering switching hosts. You don’t want to end up with the same issues even after switching hosts.

Below are some possible solutions that may improve things.
I will assume at this stage that you are using Wordpress, although some of these tips can be applied to other CMS platforms.
These recommendations have been tried and tested on this blog [Wordpress Build 2.9.1]
Although, there’s still room for improvement, there has been a noticeable improvement in loading speed. Trust me, it was extremely slow before.

At this stage, your first action is to back-up your database.
You may already have a scheduled job in place, but if possible, carry out a manual back-up.

[1] Remove unused plugins
You’ve probably stumbled across a fancy plugin in the past that you no longer use – get rid of it.
It is of no use having themit sitting on your server. The aim here is to get your server as lightweight as possible.
Procedure: Under Manage Plugins > De-activate > Delete.

[2] Optimize Your Images
If you regularly use images within your blog post, ensure they’re optimized.
You can use programs such as Photoshop or Fireworks to optimize your images for the web.
Procedure: In your favourite graphics application, export images using ‘Save for the web‘ option.

[3] Remove unused Images From Your Server.
It quite easy to accumulate images in wordpress without realising, some of which you don’t use.
Especially duplicates or images of different sizes residing on your server.
Procedure: Using an FTP client, browse to images folder, normally titled uploads in wordpress. Next remove unused or duplicate images. Test to make sure you haven’t broken anything.

[4] Upgrade your Blogging platform.
Always be on a look for the latest version of your blogging software. In most cases, a release build would address bug/security issues, performance related fixes and so on.

[5] Update Plugins.
The same goes for plugins, update them when you can. But note, any previous changes made to a plugin may be lost during an update.

[6] WP Super Cache
If you haven’t done so already, I recommend you install WP Super Cache.
This is quite a popular wordpress plugin to have – because it works.
Here’s what it does:
Instead of loading heavy PHP scripts each time a user visits your page, WP Super Cache generates and presents most of your users with static HTML files as oppose dynamic content.
In a nutshell, It minimizes server load and presents heavy stuff only on-demand.
Get Plugin: WP Super Cache

[7] Remove Post Revisions
As you edit and create new posts, WordPress keeps a revision of your work. Which is a good thing.
But on a flip-side, these revisions can easily accumulate and be a burden on your database.
Some webmasters have actually decided to get rid of this functionality altogether, by hard-coding their ‘config’ file in wordpress.
Alternatively, you can grab a cool wordpress plugin called ‘Delete Revision’.
The plugin allows you review your revisions before deleting.
In my case, I removed 1361 revisions – that’s a lot.
Get Plugin: Delete Revision

[8] Database Optimization
To increase your page’s loading time, It’s always good practice to regularly optimize your database.
It’s a straight forward back-end process located within the PHP Admin section of your hosting control panel.
If you’re not comfortable doing this, there is a simply lightweight plugin that does the job. It actually states how much overheads you have accumulated and how much you can bring it down by.
Get Plugin: Optimize DB

[9] DB Cache Reloaded
This re-worked plugin does a neat job of caching database queries for a given page.
Get Plugin: DB Cache Reloaded

[10] WP CSS
WP CSS zips and strips away whitespace from your CSS files.
Get Plugin: WP CSS

[11] Refactor Your Code
Try to minimize the number PHP requests in your code. Where possible replace them with HTML.
Your Headers and footer files are usually good places to start.

[12] Upgrade Your Hosting Service
After you have exhausted all options and you’re still experiencing loading issues, it might be worth upgrading or changing your web hosting service.
There are three main types of web hosting solution – Shared Hosting, Virtual Private Server Hosting and Dedicated Hosting.
If you’ve recently started a blog, chances are your blog is residing on a shared hosting solution.

Shared Hosting

Shared hosting is basically sharing your hosting area with a bunch of other blogs and websites.
This is a popular option for most people as they are very cost effective to maintain.
On a shared hosting you are not guaranteed system resource, so if another blog within your hosting area gets a sudden influx of traffic, it may affect your blog.
Typical Monthly Cost: £3.50

VPS Hosting

A Virtual Private Server (VPS) is a hosting environment that combines the benefits of both shared hosting and dedicated hosting.
It does this by creating a virtual server that runs inside a hardware server via a partition.
Each VPS partition runs its own operating system in a secure and private environment and cannot
be accessed or interrupted by its neighbouring blogs or websites.
On a VPS environment, you are sharing limited number of users and are guaranteed some system resource.
In comparison to shared hosting, they’re a bit more expensive to run, but you’re getting so much in terms guaranteed memory and disk space.
In fact, very soon, I am looking to move this blog to a VPS environment.
Typical Monthly Cost: £30

Dedicated Server Hosting

Dedicated hosting is simply renting your own machine which you can configure to meet your needs.
Maintaining a dedicated server can be very expensive.
Typical Monthly Cost: £200

Better Performance Check-list

Here’s a quick checklist to help improve your blog’s performance.

• Delete unused plug-ins
• Reduce the size of your images
• Simplify your php and css code.
• Update your plugins
• When available, upgrade your blogging platform
• Upgrade your hosting package

Have I missed anything else?

It’s the new year, a new campaign, a new challenge.
For some strange reason, it’s a time when everyone makes resolutions and sets new goals.

It’s also a time when most of us are charged up and motivated by the challenge ahead.

As we embark on this blogging journey with excitement, It is important to keep our feet on the ground and start off with a plan.

Plan the Journey

Don’t just dive head first, instead, take a moment to iron out where you’re heading – Have a strategy.
However long this may take, at the end you’ll find it to be a good investment.

So for a moment, stop blogging, get off Twitter, turn off emails – disconnect your internet connection if you have to.
Sit down and write down your goals for the year.

It has taken me a couple of days this week to streamline my goals and to have plans in place to execute them.
As a result of this, my current tasks list is close to a hundred so far.

Your goal may be to write 200 posts by the end of the year or to send x amount of tweets per month.
Whatever these goals are, have a plan in place to execute them.
For example, if your goal is to have 50 email subscribers in a given week, a typical plan could involve providing something of value in exchange for your readers’ email addresses like a contest or promotion.

Pre-Journey Check-list

You’ll find that doing this is time well spent. So be sure to;

• Set yourself realistic goals.

• Devise a plan that contains strategies to accomplish these goals.

• Break up your goals into smaller chunks if you have to.

• Make sure they are realistic, measurable, achievable and time bound.

• Do what it takes to achieve your goals.

- Do you have a plan for the journey ahead?
- What approach have you taken?

I don’t usually talk about myself or my blog, but since it’s the last day of year, I’m making an exception.

This has been a great 2009 at Yourblogtools. – both on and off the blog.
The story all began at the beginning of September when I decided to follow my passion and start a blog that focused on web solution tools.

I have had a wonderful time and I am ever so grateful to everyone who has become a part of this blog. This includes regular readers, those who leave comments and subscribers – thank you.
Hopefully, we’ll get to know each other much better in 2010.

If I could sum up 2009 in a word, it would be ‘discovery‘.

It has been a great year to discover many things in terms of blogging and internet marketing i.e discovering better ways to interact with others as a blogger, the world of internet marketing and the discovery of many new friends.

Coming up to four months of existence, I can confidently say I’m even more passionate about meeting the blogging needs of my readers. I still get butterflies just before hitting the publish button, and excitement when I you leave comments in response.

Successes

In the four months, I’m truly grateful for the success I have had on this blog. At the time of writing this post I have entered the 300,000 Alexa ranking group and Google Page Rank 2

Surprisingly, with very little effort, I have had some financial gain too – just enough to cover a few bills at this stage. And I am happy to say, I didn’t need to clutter my blog with Adsense ads to achieve this.

Challenges

There have been some challenges on the way. My biggest challenge at the moment is juggling the 9-5 hustle of work and blogging.

Professional Blogging itself requires full-time attention.

My time management needs work – something I am looking to put right in 2010.

Off The Blog

On the 15th August of this year, I finally tied to knot with my lovely wife Yemi. Another reason to remember 2009.

2010 and Beyond

There are big plans in the pipeline.
I am not going to give it all away, but do look out for the new look website – there’s a scheduled face-lift. And of course there’s the e-book coming soon.

So here’s wishing you all a fantastic 2010