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Why You Should Backup Your Blog

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It would be nice if all bloggers had to worry about was coming up with the next great post.  But in a world of constant security threats, even WordPress blogs need to up backed up once in a while.  And it’s better if you can backup your blog on a daily basis if you are updating the content that much.  There are several very good reasons you should be backing up your blog, but not all of them have to do with hackers or spammers.

Server problems

You may think that it will never happen to you, but servers do crash.  And your webhost may not have all those files backup for you.  I have heard many stories of those who have had dedicated servers that have crashed and they lost everything that was on their site.  Don’t think this can’t happen to you.  All of the hard work you put into your blog can be lost in a moment and it usually happens without any warning to prepare you for it.  But by having a simple backup of your blog you can make sure that even if your server completely melts down, you will be able to get your site up and running again in a matter of minutes instead of days and weeks. [Read more…] about Why You Should Backup Your Blog

5 Easy Ways to Give Your Blog an Overhaul

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It’s summer where I live, and summer is a great time to give your blog an overhaul.  That doesn’t mean you need to invest hundreds of dollars or more on a new design, but it doesn’t mean you need to invest hours upon hours either.

There are a number of things you can do that can freshen up your blog that take very little time and no money at all.

Five easy suggestions for a blog overhaul are listed below:

1. Clean up your sidebar.

Are there old ads or images in your sidebar?  Are you showing a list of links that no longer add value to your blog?  Can you rotate ads or try something new to make your sidebar more useful to you and your readers?  Your answers to these questions can give you a list of easy ways to freshen up your blog.

2. Check links.

Do links in your static pages and navigation bar work?  Do you have a blogroll in your sidebar?  Are the links in your blogroll valid or do they need to be edited or replaced entirely?  Broken links can be very annoying and damage the user experience on your blog.  Now is the time to fix them.

3. Add plugins or add-ons.

Could you boost the performance or appearance of your blog by adding some simple WordPress plugins or add-ons for other blogging applications?  Many plugins take minutes to install but can have a significant impact on your blog.

4. Invite a guest blogger.

Add a new perspective to your blog by inviting a guest blogger to publish a post.  It’s an easy way to add some interest to your blog content, save you from writing a post for a day, and help you build a relationship with another respected blogger.

5. Get more social.

Are there links to your Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn (or other social media) profiles in your blog’s sidebar to help you build relationships with your readers across the social web?  In addition to including links, you can also use widgets from sites like Twitter, Facebook and Twitter to further promote your activities across the social web.

What’s the first thing you do when it’s time to give your blog a boost?  Share your tricks for cheap and easy blog overhauls by leaving a comment below.

Image: stock.xchng

Get More Page Views – Add LinkWithin to Your Blog

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Want to get extra page views on your blog and encourage visitors to read some of your older posts?  If you use WordPress.org, there are a variety of related posts plug-ins that can help you automatically display links to related posts at the end of each of your blog posts (I like YARPP – Yet Another Related Posts Plugin).

Even if you don’t use WordPress, there is an option for you!  And if you use WordPress but would love to show images with your related posts link, then you should keep reading, too.

LinkWithin is a free (and currently ad-free) widget that you can configure for your blog in minutes.  It works on WordPress, Blogger, and TypePad blogs.  Just visit LinkWithin.com, enter your email address, blog URL, blogging platform, and the number of stories you want to show in your widget into the form provided on the LinkWithin home page.  Check the box in the form if your blog uses light text on a dark background, and click on the Get Widget button to get the instructions and code to copy into your blog to display related posts with images at the end of each of your posts.  It’s that easy!

The image above shows you what related posts displayed using LinkWithin look like at the end of a WordPress blog post.

Getting additional page views can help you in a variety of ways, particularly if you want to make more money from blog advertising.  Many advertisers are interested in learning how many page views your blog gets per month, so they can compare apples to apples when evaluating advertising opportunities between different sites.  The more page views your blog gets, the more you can realistically charge and expect to receive for ad space sold on your blog.  Also, if you participate in impression-based advertising programs (where you’re paid based on the number of times ads are displayed), then increasing page views on your blog can boost your earning potential from those impression-based ads.

Furthermore, adding links to related posts helps your readers stay on your blog longer, get a better idea of what your blog offers, and develop a greater interest in you and your blog.

LinkWithin uses your blog post titles, tags and content to find and display related posts.  Don’t worry if you don’t use images in all of your posts.  LinkWithin displays text links only when the majority of the related links discovered for a specific post don’t have images attached to them.

Bottom-line, LinkWithin is free, easy to install, and easy to remove if you don’t like it.  Why not give it a try and see if it boosts page views on your blog?

What do you think?  Do you use LinkWithin or another plugin or tool to display related posts on your blog?  Leave a comment and share your preference!