OMNINOGGIN

In this post I will discuss some of the web design mistakes that I have done on this blog, and what I did to fix them.

A few months ago, I was fortunate enough to get free advice from a friend of mine, Emily Luong, who happens to be a professional graphics designer.  Aside from being a graphics design geek, she’s put in good work on nice sites like Edelbio Skin Care Blog so I do not take her advice lightly.  I asked her to review my blog and what do you know?  It needs improving!

Read on…

I have been blogging seriously for almost one year. I’ve learned a lot on the topic of WordPress and blogging from intense online research and trial-and-error. It wasn’t until Alex Sysoef (author of a blog I regularly read) gave me the opportunity to preview his Platinum Membership of the Expert WordPress product that I realized how inefficient I have been at promoting and monetizing my blog.

What is this product?

The product includes a pre-packaged blog optimized for serious bloggers who do not want to worry about the technical details and access to priceless video tutorials (personally I believe this is the meat of the product) to help you succeed in blogging. If you are a new-found serious blogger, you would find that the pre-packaged blog contains all the necessary tools you will need to help you blog, promote, and monetize effectively right out of the box. Here is what Alex has to say about the platinum membership.

What I love about it?

The videos. Want to learn about seach engine optimization (SEO), effective monetizing, driving quality traffic, or blog tweaks/maintenance? Alex walks you through all these time-tested techniques and more in a series of easy to understand tutorial videos that is included with the product. These tutorials will help you get started the right way so you do not waste any time making mistakes and fixing them as I did. I honestly regret not having seen these videos in my earlier blogging days because I would’ve built a better blog in less amount of time.

What I don’t like about it

Of course no product is perfect. Personally, I would like to see a cleaner Web 2.0 theme get pre-packaged into the blog installation. One important aspect of converting a new visitor is to have a clean theme that is less cluttered to make a good first impression. That being said, I do believe that the most valuable part of the product is the tutorials itself. I would have purchased the product just for the videos that cover strategies on seo, blogging, promoting, and monetizing. This is also why I believe that the gold membership is redundant. I think most people should ditch the gold membership and go for the platinum. This is because once you’ve setup your blog, you will need to learn how to effectively use it anyway.

The bottom line

I highly recommend the platinum membership for serious bloggers who are looking to quickly and efficiently deploy a blog to promote their business. This product is a prime example of the motto, “Work smarter, not harder.” Thank you for putting this product together Alex. I will implement these techniques to empower my blog in the coming months and I am confident that my blog will gain the much deserved authority.

Check out the product here!

What’s up the affiliate links?
At times, I get offers to review a new product in my niche. I do my best to give it an honest review and report it to my readers. I also make an effort to add affiliate links any time I honestly recommend a product or service. They do not harm you in any way, but they do help offset the costs of running this website. Just assume that I get paid for everything I say.

Weekend Links for the week ending on 07-25-08

• Enhanced Sidebars with Dynamic Content: Visitors tend to ignore the sidebar because most of sidebar content do not change. I’ve been experimenting with this myself and I was planning to write a similar post but Vandelay Design says it better (for now at least).
• WordPress Tips + Things You Can Do After Installing Wordpress: It is more like “Things You *Should* Do After Installing WordPress” both for security purposes and usability.
• How to write a solid and stable WordPress plugin: Mark Jaquith tells us [WordPress plugin developers] how to develop solid and stable WordPress plugins.
• The Deceptively Simple Steps to Persuasive Writing That Works: This technique requires no actual writing ability, but it does work! It’s so simple I can’t believe I never did it until recently.

Read on…

Today I would like to announce the release of “WP Greet Box” WordPress Plugin. A plugin that can help you increase your blog exposure and build loyal readership.

Description

This plugin lets you show a different greeting message to your new visitors depending on their referrer url. For example, when a Digg user clicks through from Digg, they will see a message reminding them to digg your post if they like it. Another example, when a visitor clicks through from Twitter, they
will see a message suggesting them to twit the post and follow you on Twitter. You can also set a default greeting message for new visitors (not matching any referrer URLs) suggesting them to subscribe to your RSS feed. Professional bloggers know that having these targeted suggestions on their blog increases their blog exposure and loyal readership. Best of all, this plugin is compatible with various WordPress cache plugins so you do not have to sacrifice speed.

Currently the following referrers are supported, but you can easily create your own if your favorite referrer is not on the list!

• del.icio.us
• digg.com
• google.com
• yahoo.com
• stumbleupon.com
• technorati.com
• twitter.com

Read on…