"Developing WordPress themes, templates and WordPress plugins"

I came across a question yesterday that got me thinking beceause whilst this blog is popular (thanks readers) my answer included the obvious fact that blogs need to be updated regularly otherwise they go stale, and guess what -  I don’t update regulalry, this is mainly beceause we are so busy working for clients (thanks to them) in order to be like everybody else – putting food on the table.  Anyhow I thought I would set out my answer for you.

Blob  popularity – is  complex.

The level of popularity will depend on the subject of your Blog. e.g. some subjects will not have mass appeal – e.g. a blog on King Stephen the 1st of England whereas other will have e.g. web design (get it?) so popularity is a fickle thing only you will be able to judge what deem popular.

Anyhow a popular blog (on any given subject) will be one with regular posts and posts that are interesting and qualified here I mean informative to the reader and give the impression you are an expert in the subject.

Regular posts really means at least one a day prefereably more.

You should them promote your blog submit to DMOZ, search engines etc. With wordpress you can also link directly to facebook, myspace twitter etc. this is good and you should make sure you “feed” your blog into these social networks with links back to the relevant post.

In reality there is so much you can do, but it is all about activity, lots of posts, lots of promotion etc. via twitter etc.

I recently wrote

“In this age of Web 2.0 social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin etc. it is becoming increasingly important for companies to participate in this maelstrom.

There are so many sites out there and finding the time to explore them, understand what and how they can work for you is problematic as most of you are already too busy running your own business – that’s a good thing! But if you are not using these fantastic tools you are definitely missing out on business.

How do we know this – When we started using Social Media we saw a dramatic increase in both website visitors – and I am talking about over 700% on a daily basis – and as a direct result an increase in our business.”

An no I don’t update that regulary I am too busy, but when I do update I get lots of hits.

The fastest one of my blog posts appeared in Google is 11 seconds! and a few hits shortly afterthat that is the power of blogging with systems such as wordpress who provide rss feeds to the world via pinging Technorati when a new post appears.

So for blog popularity it is quite simple, a good and interesting subject, be knowledgeable and blog regularly.

I will try in the future!

Popularity: unranked [?]

On Monday 13 July 2009 BestSmallShop will become available

Here are the features at a glance

• Complete e-commerce solution
• Fully hosted with your own domain name
• Monthly or annual payment options
• No technical knowledge required
• Accept credit cards online
• Automatic currency conversions
• Search engine friendly
• Secure browser based administration
• Unlimited support – e-mail us or phone us and we will phone you back
• Lifetime upgrades

• Unlimited items/product
• Unlimited images per items/product
• Automatic items/product thumbnails
• Item/product attributes (colours, sizes,..)
• Sale & featured items
• New & featured item/products
• Item/product reviews
• E-mail notifications
• Shipping options
• Inventory control
• Built in search engine
• Sub categories
• Coupon discounts
• Customer login
• Newsletter management
• Sales reports
• Google analytics
• Numerous layout and colour options
• Item/product RSS feed
• Your customers can Tweet your products from BestSmallShop
• Automatic posting of items/products onto social media sites like Twitter & Facebook*
• Regular posting of products to Twitter*

* Twitter and Facebook accounts required.

We have designed BestSmallShop to be very easy to use and we cannot stress enough no programming or design experience needed whatsoever.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Would you like to sell your products and services online? BestSmallShop will make it easy for you. With BestSmallShop’s online e-commerce solution, you can quickly be trading on the internet with your own easy to use online e-commerce shop.

On Monday 13 July 2009 BestSmallShop will become available and your dreams of selling on-line a reality. With BestSmallShop you will be amazed how easy it is to set up and open your online e-commerce shop. With no programming or design experience whatsoever you can build your own powerful online e-commerce shop which can work alone or easily be integrated into an existing website.

BestSmallShop comes with everything you’ll need and it will ensure your customers keep coming back for more!

With unlimited configuration options and an intuitive control panel at your command BestSmallShop is easy, quick and powerful.

BestSmallShop will make e-commerce easy.

Register for a personal guided tour and demonstration of BestSmallShop.  A qualified BestSmallShop representative will initially contact you by e-mail to arrange a suitable time for them to telephone you (yes we pay) for your personal guided tour.  They will also be able to answer any questions you may have.

If you register before Monday 13th July 2009 (Our release date) you will qualify for a 25% discount on either the annual or monthly fee if you proceed with purchasing an online e-commerce BestSmallShop shop.

Popularity: 3% [?]

So it’s official – and now public! Google will launch Chrome the OS in the near future – OK prob. 2010 but that’s only a few months away.

With the few details currently available I am looking forward to Chrome OS with interest. The fact they say Open Source by mid/late 2010 is interesting this could spell the end of the Windows O/S dominance which can only be a good thing. Why should we continually have to pay for updated O/S systems? and lets be honest most of us – even those in the industry don’t use half of the facilities they contain – that’s why people don’t upgrade too often and why MS stops support – to make people upgrade. Nothing against MS but lets all be honest what do most people use an O/S for – ummmmm open files/windows and access the internet via a browser. The average person does not need all the bells and whistles that come with most operating systems.

Think of this if support was still available I could actually still use Windows 98 as all I want to do is open files/windows and access the internet via a browser.

Hopefully Chrome OS will be a “simple” OS, an OS for the masses, an OS that allows people to do what they want to do in an easy way. If that is the case I can see a large take up. It should also spell the end of the annual/biannual re-invention of the Windows OS and having to fork out hard earned $ EU £ etc.

We currently have/run over $75,000 worth of properietory brand software (Yes it’s all legal) and as a professional in the industry we HAVE to spend a large amount of $ EU £ just to keep uptodated (yes I know there are programs like Microsoft Partners out there, but they still cost $ EU £). That means that we have to pass these costs on.

That is why I am looking forward to Chrome OS – hopefully we can all reduce costs and make technology more accessible

Popularity: 3% [?]

The UK’s new ‘Digital Champion’ – Martha Lane Fox -has set herself a challenge.

17 million Britons do not have net access – thats about 1/3 of the population – , Ms Lane Fox has said  said she wanted to concentrate on the six million “at the bottom of the pile”.  by helping them get web access  “Familiarity with the web would help these people learn, save money and compete better for jobs”

For more http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8136315.stm

Popularity: 1% [?]

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