As soon as we have a blog set up of course, we’d want to have our blog indexed in search engines. But how do we do that? Blogs can actually get indexed without you doing anything except to post and update it. Especially if you are using Wordpress and set up the Ping Options.But if you go by this route, indexing may take time.Thankfully, there are lots of things you can do to have your blogs indexed faster.

Let me share my blog indexing guide list. Be sure to have at least 2-4 posts on your blog before you start doing this. This list has made things really easier for me.

10 Steps to Faster Blog Indexing:

1. Submit site to Google, Yahoo Directory, MSN, DMOZ..
2. Claim blog with Technorati.
3. Join BlogCataglog and MyblogLog and claim blog. – I find this very helpful and they send some traffic also once you have a community. They also publish a snippet of your RSS feed.
4. Submit blog to Blog and Website Directories.- There are countless free web directory sites to submit to,and it can be a little overwhelming. So choose a couple of sites and do it little by little and you don’t really need to submit to all of them. There are also softwares for website submissions you might want to have a look at that.
5. Blog hop and leave comments on several blogs. – But do make sure your comments are relevant to the blog posts. You wouldn’t want to be branded as a spammer, right? In any case, leaving comments and connecting with other bloggers is one of fun perks in blogging.
6. Exchange links with related blogs. – How? For me, simply asking nicely gets the best results. A lot of bloggers are open to exchanging links.
7. Join Entrecard and add widget to your blog. – I know some would say Entrecard is passe but I still get a good number of visitors from Entrecard without even doing much Entrecard dropping.
8. Write a profile page or add blog URL to your social networking profiles. – If you have personal profiles in sites like Facebook, YouTube, Linkd In, Twitter, MySpace, Plurk (the list is actually endless..) then make use of it and link to your site.
9. Bookmark your URL or one of your posts in Social Bookmarking sites. – Digg, Delicious, Furl, Propeller etc..
10. Post in relevant forums and add your blog url on your profile signature. – Search for niche forums and sign up. Make sure your forum posts are relevant to the discussions. You can find related niche forums using forum search engines like www.boardtracker and www.boardreader.com.

Tip: Have your details handy when you’re submitting in directories. I find it really helpful to have my URL, Site Title, Site Description, Email (most directories will email for confirmation), RSS Feed URL. Have this ready in a notepad to make submissions faster.

©2010 pinaywifespeaks. All Rights Reserved.

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Wordpress blogs are more flexible and customizable, it is search engine friendly and it has a large support community as well as lots of add-ons like plugins and themes to make your blog better.

Don’t get me wrong, Blogger is a great free service but if you have your own domain, consider moving on to Wordpress.At first I was hesitant to make the transfer because I thought installation and its management is complicated and I feared losing Pagerank, traffic as well as the permalink structure of my Blogger blog.

With the launch of Wordpress 2.2 though, IMPORTING from other blogging platforms have been seamlessly integrated already with Wordpress.I have successfully managed to transfer one of my previously Blogger hosted blog, CelebrityAdsOnline to Wordpress and this a guide on how transferring from Blogger to Wordpress.

1. Get your own domain and your host. Change your NameServers and use the one’s specified by your new host. Domain propagation would take a few hours.

2. Install Wordpress. Most web hosts include Wordpress in their control panels. Login to your Cpanel, select FANTASTICO, select WORDPRESS, click on new installation. Fill in the required data and voila! your new wordpress is installed. If your host doesn’t include WORDPRESS in their easy install menu, you have to manually install it. Don’t despair though, Wordpress CODEX has a step-by-step guide for that.

3. Fix your PERMALINKS structure. LOGIN to your WORDPRESS (admin page is usually at www.yourdomain.com/wp-admin).

Go to OPTIONS > PERMALINKS > select CUSTOM and enter the following values:

/%year%/%monthnum%/%postname%.html

We have to change your permalinks structure to match the post structure of your Blogger blog so you have less broken links and redirects.

4. Import your Blogger posts and comments. In your WORDPRESS dashboard:

Go to MANAGE > IMPORT > Select BLOGGER on the list.

You will be taken to authorization page where you will be required to sign in to your Google account.

This is how the authorization page would look like…

Once you have logged-in to your Google account your Blogger blogs will be listed on the Import page. Choose which blog you want to move and click on the IMPORT button.

You will be able to view how many posts and comments have been imported to your new Wordpress blog.

5. Check your imported posts. Some of the links might be broken. This is because Blogger and Wordpress convert post titles to URL’s in different ways. But this can be fixed using Wordpress plugins like Redirection or Blogger Redirector.

6. Remember to transfer your feed. Check your feedburner guide for transfer steps.

IF YOU EXPERIENCE SOME GLITCHES, like I did, when I reached the import page and only one post could be imported and I waited for a couple of hours and the import did not proceed, here what I did:

I imported my Blogger blog first to a WORDPRESS.COM blog, then I exported the XML from WORDPRESS.COM to my SELF-HOSTED WORDPRESS blog. Here’s the step by step guide:

1. Register a new blog in WORDPRESS.COM.

2. In the WORDPRESS.COM dashboard, go to TOOLS > IMPORT > BLOGGER then follow the steps to transferring your posts and comments.

3. Once you are done with importing, go to TOOLS > EXPORT then download the XML file to your computer.

4. Now, LOGIN to your new SELF-HOSTED WORDPRESS blog, then go to TOOLS > IMPORT > select WORDPRESS and upload the XML file you have downloaded in Step 3.

5. Now you’re done with the transfer!

Some more pointers..

1. If you have uploaded images to your Blogger account, this would not be imported to your Wordpress blog. You have to manually upload them, consider getting an account with Photobucket, Flickr or other free photo sharing service.

2. Your sidebar links, widgets, layouts and other blog add-ons will also not be included in the import. You have to customize the look and functionalities of your blog from scratch. Don’t worry though, you won’t get lost. Wordpress Support forum has a lot of guides in customization.

3. Do check out your tags and categories. Your tags will be imported as categories so it might look daunting at first especially if you have already made a lot of posts. You have to manually change and reorganize your tags and categories but it would all be worth the effort.

4. Have fun playing with your new Wordpress blog! It may be nerve-wracking at first and time-consuming but it’s a great learning experience for new Wordpress bloggers. There are also plenty of resources for you to check out so you can come out with an awesome Wordpress blog.

For plugins, visit Wordpress Plugins. I personally recommend the following plugins:
Google Sitemap Generator,
Wordpress Automatic Upgrade,
Bad Behavior (I hate spam! ),
Adman,
CommentLuv,
Maintenance Mode,
Do-Follow,
Wordpress Related Posts,
Wordpress Stats,
WP-Contact Form.
The plugins available are really extensive so take your pick on which would best suit your blog needs.

For Wordpress themes, you can go layout crazy with countless theme choices.

For more tips and guides, do visit the Wordpress Forum.

©2010 pinaywifespeaks. All Rights Reserved.

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I just heaved a sigh of relief when I saw that everything was fine, wordpress is just sporting a totally new look! Do I love it or not? I still have to get used to the new interface but I must admit I kinda miss the colors of the past versions but this new one looks more organized and items more streamlined. Almost all things can now be easily accessed, so just a few clicks will get me to where I want to be.

Toolbars that used to be on top of the screen are now grouped together on the left. Noticeable additions are the QuickPress section where you can easily draft or publish a post from your dashboard, comment threading as well as reply links on the dashboard, paging, one-click plugin installation, sticky posts and I like the Screen Options where you can manage what sections you want to appear on you dashboard.

One of the best things about this upgrade is this:  “this may be the last time you ever have to manually upgrade WordPress again.” I’m quoting that from Wordpress blog . Isn’t it just fantastic that now WordPress includes a built-in upgrade that will automatically notify you of new releases, and when you’re ready it will download them, install them, and upgrade your blog with a single click. That means I don’t have any chances now of messing up my blog hehe.

Thanks, Wordpress!

©2010 pinaywifespeaks. All Rights Reserved.

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42. Rebel

43. Small Magazine

44. Structure – theme by Justin Tadlock

45. The Morning After – theme by Arun Kale

46. Tomodachi

47. True Elegance – theme by Ahmed Fouad

48. Unstandard – theme by Derek Punsalan

49. Upstart Blogger

50. Visionary

51. WP MAGAZINE

52. WP PIXELS

53. WP REVOLUTION X

54. WP STRICT

55. WP INFINITY

56. WP GOLD

57. WP SILVER

58. Wynton Magazine

59. YG BLOOM PRO - theme by Amitabh Shukla

©2010 pinaywifespeaks. All Rights Reserved.

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21. Hamasaki – theme by Nurudin Jauhari

22. Indian Muslim – theme by Nurudin Jauhari

23. Jello Wala Mello

24. Mag On Wood – theme by ChiQ Montes

25. Magadine 12

26. Massive News – theme by Jason Schuller

27. Massive Press

28. Mimbo 2.2 – theme by Darren Hoyt

29. Monochrome Gallery

30. Nature – theme by miloIIIIVII

31. Nautica – theme by Max Limpag

32. Newspaperize – theme by Justin Tadlock

33. Newsweek

34. No Way Out – theme by miloIIIIVII

35. Open Book – theme by Jean-Baptiste Jung

36. Options Blue Danube – theme by Justin Tadlock

37. Options Light

38. Options Shadow

39. Overstand – theme by Floyd Celluloyd

40. PMag - theme by ChiQ Montes

©2010 pinaywifespeaks. All Rights Reserved.

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I just didn’t realize that there are a lot of magazine type WP themes out there and I just kept downloading what I fancied and ended up having a hard time to choose which theme to use. Anyway, I managed to find some really stunning themes and I’d like to share it with you.

If you want to download or check out the demo’s, I’ve included the theme author’s page links. It’s still best if you download these themes at the author’s sites to avoid malwares from some third party sites. Do also note that most magazine themes require some tweaking but for noobs like me, most authors provides support, forums or at times installation guides are included in the theme package.

I’ve divided this into 3 posts, here’s the first 20 WP Magazine Themes:

1. Artfull – 3 columns, fluid, with a flash clock, custom date options, social bookmarking and native WP tag system enabled.

2. 30April – widget ready, fixed width, edit profile via theme options, extra footer, theme options, gravatar.

3. Branford Magazine

4. Agregado

5. Brightness

6. Arthemia

7. Charred

8. Checkmate

9. Essentials

10. E-Storage Plus

11. F8Lite

12. Furiosity Aperio Prototype

13. Gabfire Maq

14. Grid Focus

15. Superfresh

16. Gridblog

17. Gridline Lite

18. Guzel Magazine

19. G Styles

20. Guzel Pro

Will post the next 20 soon..

©2010 pinaywifespeaks. All Rights Reserved.

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I really thought it would be nerve wracking to transfer this site to another host. That is one of the reasons I held back from getting a new host even if I really needed to. I read a lot of posts saying that transferring host can be a headache so when the decision was made, my brain kept cooking up scenarios of my blog being lost with no back-ups. Hehe overactive imagination on my part.

There are lots of web hosting providers out there and I had a hard time deciding which one I’d choose. A lot of my online friends recommended Hostgator so I checked out their hosting plans. The plan prices, features are almost identical to all other hosts I checked the difference though is that  they accept Paypal payments, you have the option to make monthly, 2 and 3 year payments, and what clinched the deal? They offer free site transfer ( free domain transfer, free file transfer, free MySQL transfer, free Script Transfer).

As of this time I am really satisfied with the way they handled the transfer. I just submitted a ticket, less than an hour I got a response for my confirmation to go ahead and in less than 12 hours my site was successfully transferred!

©2010 pinaywifespeaks. All Rights Reserved.

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My father arrived from Bicol and I had to bring him to Camp Crame because he had to process something about his pension and retirement benefits. I am really sad that at his age (he’s almost 80) he still had to come a long way just to get the benefits owed to him. I have a lot to say about my dad and other police retirees pursuit to have their pensions adjusted and received so I’m reserving those thoughts for another post.

Chinks also decided to go on vacation in Bicol and I didn’t have the heart to refuse her asking to spend sometime with the grandparents since well soon be leaving for Phnom Penh. Not having my daughter around made me a bit depressed so I am so thankful for mobile phones and web cams.

Hi-ace is about to defend his dissertation tomorrow and the past few days has been a doubly hectic time for us. Being the “supportive, understading and  wife” that I am  I helped him out with countless revisions, proofreading, and printing I’ve already sworn, I won’t ever take up graduate studies just to avoid the pain of writing a thesis. After that I was so sleepy, weary and tired to the bones.

It was just last night I got the chance to check my sites and darn it! I can’t access my site and cpanel. I’ve exceed my bandwidth and my site has been in twilight zone since the 25th. That was a 6 day vacation and whew! I checked my traffic rankings   and the results were a bit depressing too..

I don’t want to dwell on it anymore. Priorities are priorities and as of this time, I will soon be able to fix the hosting and bandwidth concerns, will be able to drop on my fave Entrecard sites, and write some posts..I’ve also decided to updated my theme. I want this blog to have a new and uncluttered look just like this new wordpress blog I have modified.

I guess I could go to bed now and get some much needed zzzzzzz and I don’t have to worry now coz I could safely say now that Pinaywifespeaks is back from twilight zone!

©2010 pinaywifespeaks. All Rights Reserved.

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Typical of me, I messed it up, my apologies to those who dropped by this blog early this morning. It was really messy and arggh I even accidentally deleted my blog directory links and I have no idea how to find those codes and links. And don’t think my carelessness stopped there, I deleted my wp-content folder which contains my theme. I was really in  an awful mood and it made me even madder that I don’t have anyone to blame but myself.

But I am allowing myself some credit – I backed up my database. Lol! Everything is now back to normal after several hours of tweaking here and there. The truth is I didn’t sleep the whole night just to fix the mess I’ve made. My husband remarked I look like a zombie now. So I asked myself, is it worth the effort?

A big YES! Readers of course won’t notice a difference but I really appreciate this new version. What’s new ?

• Version/revision saves a copy of a post every time you edit it, allows you to view (not edit) each of those copies (revisions), Shows forward (in time) diffs between any two revisions. – isn’t this just awesome? I used to make post drafts with notepad so I could have different versions, but now I could do it right here.

• Display captions of images alongside them in posts and pages.

• Add paging of Themes in Design panel. 

• Word Count displayed when writing and editing posts and pages. – this is a very functional feature, I’m sure most bloggers would agree..

• Press This bookmarklet

• Add sorting to gallery. – this is very much appreciated. Thank you, WP Ver. 2.6 developers.

• Export/import post excerpts

• Theme Previewer- – for bloggers who make a hobby out of changing themes this new feature is heaven sent.

• Check (assigned) Categories at top Category box in Write/Manage Post

• Show when a term is both a tag and a category

• Wider Profile fields

• TinyMCE 3.1

• Two categories can have sub-categories with the same name

Do upgrade now and experience a Wordpress at its best. Installation instructions here. Follow them, if not, you’ll be like me, sleepless because of wordpress.

©2010 pinaywifespeaks. All Rights Reserved.

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First I checked if my host meets the requirements and then I proceeded to backup my website in case something goes wrong then I deactivated my plugins. The instructions provided by wordpress was simple and easy to follow so I expected it to go smoothly.. Then I did something crazy! I accidentally deleted my wp-config.php file, so when I visited the upgrade page, what do I see but a whole lot of garbled letters! I thought, blast it! I didn’t know what to do ( I was in panicky mood already!) , good thing its easy to get hold of my web host and it was really nice of them to guide me through the backup restoration..

A lesson learned: Delete wp-admin and wp-includes directories, be careful with wp-content and most important: DO NOT DELETE – wp-config.php; wp-content; wp-images; .htaccess; robots.txt!

Whew! Was wordpress 2.5 worth my panic attack?

I’d say yes! Although on readers/visitors won’t even notice the changes well on the users end, wordpress 2.5 dashboard is easy on the eyes. I like the colors used and it looks less cluttered than before.

One of the updates I love on this release is the way they changed the format of widget management. It easier now that you can see all widgets available on the left sidebar and on the right you can see drop down lists of sections of your blog where you can put your widgets..

There’s one thing i don’t like though, Inserting photos from a URL is a breeze..but why do I keep getting errors when I try to upload from my computer?

Overall, the upgrade is fab!

©2010 pinaywifespeaks. All Rights Reserved.

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