If you are using a self-hosted WordPress blog and you are concerned about security, you should read this guide called: Blog Lock Down written by Craig Desorcy. This 90-page ebook is like WordPress Security Bible for the idiots, it makes complicated security subject into a very simple step-by-step instructions for everyone to understand and follow.

If you have done any blogging, I’m sure you have heard of WordPress. It’s one of the most powerful blog platform and content management system. It’s free and has been downloaded millions of times by people all over the world. However, the big problem with WordPress is that it’s an open source code, which means it’s not encrypted and protected. The hackers know that and will find ways to violate any security hole.

Inside the Blog Lock Down guide, you will see step-by-step instructions on how to close all the security holes that can be exploited by hackers to gain access to your WordPress blog.

Here are some of the things you will learn:

• Discover the number one way most hackers use to get access to your computer and how can you prevent it.
• Over 100 screen shots to illustrate each step it takes to secure your blog.
• How to avoid the common security mistake made when uploading to your blog and how to close that hole and stop hackers from destroying your blog.
• A secret strategy to secure your computer from unauthorised access. With this strategy, you’ll be able to build a barricade that can protect your sensitive data even if you were to hand someone your computer.
• Discover how you can give anyone your Wordpress Admin user name and password and they’ll still not be able to login to your blog.
• How to prevent the search engine bots or spiders from crawling the web pages that you don’t want them to index.
• Secret technique for stopping hackers from adding hidden links.
• Stop comment spam bots from finding and accessing your Wordpress comments section.
• And much more…..

Additionally, you will also get 13 Security Walk through Video Tutorials that show you step by step how to secure your computer and WordPress blog. Watching the videos is like sitting besides a security expert as he demonstrates to you how to lock and protect your system from the cyber thieves.

Conclusion:

Blog Lock Down is a guide that every WordPress user should read if they want to make sure that they are safe from the hackers. Although there is no 100% foolproof way to secure your Wordpress system because there are just too many variables and some are in fact out of your control.

However, by following the approach used in the Blog Lock Down, you will make your Wordpress blog so difficult to hack. A hacker trying to hack your blog will just give up and move on to another target.

I highly recommend this guide for everyone who are care to protect their blogs.

If you have a business and a website, and you want to know how to increase your business exposure using Twitter, you will want to read this article. In this article, I will share with you how to set up Twitter in an auto pilot mode to promote your website.

Here are the steps:

1. We assume that you already have a website. You should also put some useful content about your business in the website.

For example, take a look at this Twitter site: http://twitter.com/susanmei

On the right side, you can read her short profile and a link to her website.

2. Next, you will need to create your Twitter account. I’m not going to show you how to do this because it’s so easy. If you know how to create a Gmail, Yahoo or Facebook account, you know how to create a Twitter account. Just go to twitter.com and click on Register.

3. Purchase this product: Twitter Traffic Machine.

What? I need to buy a product? I can almost hear you scream… but calm down! It only costs $27. If it can help improve your business bottom line by just 1%, don’t you think $27 is the best investment you’ve ever made? If you implement the strategies and methods taught in the product, I’m confident that it can help improve your business bottom line by more than 1%.

The product consists of 5 tutorial videos showing you how to “AUTOMATE” your Twitter account step by step. It’s a very worthwhile investment. With that product, you don’t have to spend weeks or even months searching and learning from the Internet on how to automate your twitter engine. You just need to sit down and watch the 5 videos for 1 hour and you’re all set!

Twitter Traffic Machine is key to automating your twitter account. It will show you how to set up an auto response email message, how to automate the following process, how to automate your account to follow people who have the same interest with you, how to set up and automate your updates, and much more. As mentioned, it only costs $27. After that no more investment is needed!

NOTE: When you follow the steps and instructions in Twitter Traffic Machine for the first time, it may take you 1.5 hour to watch the video and 2 hours to set up and automate your account. After that, it’s all “hands-free”!

That’s all folks… go twitter now and increase your business bottom line. Good Luck!

P.S. If you need more info, go and read: Twitter Traffic Machine Review.

It’s an undisputed fact that Google values higly those sites that have many quality and relevant incoming links. Quality means those sites that have decent content or useful information for their users. And relevant means sites that are focusing on similar niche or topic.

However, getting links to your site or blog is very tedious and time consuming. You need to spend hours browsing the Net, find sites that are in the same niche with yours and then request if they can link to your site or do a link exchange. From my experience, most webmasters don’t bother to respond to such request.

Well, there is a better way. If you own a blog, perhaps you have heard about the blogosphere. Basically, it’s a community for bloggers to make friends and interact with each other. With blogosphere, you can form a network of bloggers that are in the same niches with you.

To start building quality and relevant links to your blog, visit the following 3 sites regularly….

1. Technorati

2. Google Blog Search

3. MyBlogLog

Go and browse around these sites regularly, and try to find those blogs that have similar niches with yours. Read their posts to see if they have decent content. Also, check and make sure that the owners update their blogs on a regular basis.

Copy the URL of those blogs that you think provide good information and updated regularly. Now, try to contact the owners and ask if they are interested in exchanging a link with you.

I personally experienced higher success rate from these 3 sites when it comes to link exchange.

Hope you find this short post helpful.

I was often asked by people how to make money if they don’t have a website or blog?

Well, my answer is always… Yes! you can. And I’m going to show you how in this article. The method I’m going to share with you (as you’ve probably noticed) is using Blogger blog (which is free) and eBay RSS feed.

Although in the long run you will want to have your own website or blog but for many beginners, the method I’m going to share with you is equally effective in earning some bucks from the Net.

Let’s get started…. and here are the steps:

1. Find a topic or niche you’re interested in. If you already have a topic in mind, great! If not, read this article: “How To Do Market Research Online“.

2. Go to blogger.com and create your Blogger blog

3. Go to eBay Partner Network (EPN) and join as eBay’s affiliate

4. Login to your EPN and create a campaign (Campaigns > Create Campaign)

5. Copy the campaign ID

6. Now, go to ebay.com to create your RSS feed

7. Click on the “Advanced Search” and enter the search criteria for your RSS feed (eg. acid reflux)

8. Under the Affiliate Tracking Information section, select eBay Partner Network, enter your Campaign ID, and click Search.

9. Scroll to the bottom of the search results page displayed and click on the orange RSS logo.

10. Select and copy the URL of the XML page from your browser.

11. Now, go to rssfeedconverter.com to convert your RSS feed into Java Script (paste the URL and click Generate Script).

12. Copy and paste the Java Script generated onto a text file.

13. Write a 300 – 500 words article related to your topic and post it to your new blog.

14. Before you publish your article, switch your Blogger editor to HTML by clicking on “Edit Html” tab

15. Scroll down to the end of your article and paste the Java Script after your article.

Below is an example of one of my Blogger blogs after following the above steps.

“iPod touch Listings”

When your visitors click on the listing and purchase, eBay will pay you the commissions.

Next question is….

How to get traffic to your blog?

Well, there are many ways to get traffic to your blog but in this article I will share with you one effective and FREE way of generating traffic to your blog. That’s Article Marketing – writing and submitting articles related to your subject (in this case iPod touch) to article directories.

As mentioned, this is a free method but you need to spend time writing the articles. I normally write 300 – 400 words articles related to my niche topic and submit to the following 5 article directories. No need to buy any submitter software and submit to hundreds of directories because most of them are useless and won’t give you any traffic. The following 5 are enough and they are the best.

• EzineArticles
• ArticlesBase
• GoArticles
• ArticleDashBoard
• IdeasMarketers

P.S. As I mentioned at the beginning, you may want to own your own website or blog in the long run because owning and hosting your own site on a reliable server will give you more flexibility and professionalism. Blogger blogs are free and hosted by Google. However, they are perfect for the newbies to learn how to make some real money online.

If you’re interested to learn how to build a blog that you can call your own, how to get traffic and how to transform it into a money-making machine, check out this guide: “Bloggers Paycheck“. You can read my review of this product at “Bloggers Paycheck Review“

If you are a blogger, you know that fresh and regular content is the lifeblood of your blog. The reason why search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN love blogs is because blogs always have fresh content.

Your blog will rank well in the search engines’ result page if it has fresh content on a regular basis. When your blog ranks well, it will attract lots of targeted traffic and lots of traffic mean more sales, and more sales mean more money for you.

But writing and publishing fresh content on a regular basis doesn’t come easy for most bloggers. They need to sit down in front of computer for hours to write articles that are interesting or that people want to read. That’s where PLR (Private Label Rights) content come in and give you a hand.

If you want to know how to fire up your blogs with PLR content, download this FREE report: “Fire Up Your Blog with PLR Content“.

This free report explains 6 attractive benefits to using PLR content with your blogging, 12 creative ideas for using PLR and more. It’s a quick 3 page report with plenty of ideas you can use right away.

Click here to download NOW! (there is no opt-in form).

Creating a blog is an easy way to get started making money online. However, as with any business, you need to keep your eye on your blog’s profitability. If you’re new to blogging, these five tips will help you to make money with your blog.

1. Set blog goals

Ideally, you should set your blog’s goals before you create your blog. If you set your goals first, you will be able to estimate the potential traffic you can attract to your blog, and therefore the amount of income you’re likely to make.

So before you create your blog, write down:

* Your blog’s topic (for example: digital photography, or diet tips, or whatever topic you’d like to create a blog about);

* Use keyword research tools to discover how many people are searching for your blog’s topic online each day:

If there are fewer than 100 searches, look for another topic. Don’t shy away from topics which have lots of competition online – lots of competition means that there’s a lot of interest, and a lot of traffic too. So if your topic has 5000 search a day, and millions of Web pages, go ahead and create your blog.

* Decide how you will make money from your blog. Will you sell advertising space? Sell products? Make a list of revenue streams for your blog;

* Estimate the income your blog will make in your first, second, third and fifth years. Yes, this is mainly guesswork, however it will motivate you to keep blogging when you see your blog’s potential.

If you’re completely new to blogging, and have no idea how to set your blog’s goals, then get a blogging mentor, or ask questions at forums. Your blog has the potential to make a great income for you, if you treat your blogging as a real business.

Now you’ve set some goals for your blog, set up your blog and start blogging.

2. Diversify your blog revenue

In your first year of blogging, focus on creating content for your blog, and experiment with various forms of income. There’s always a new income-generator coming out, so test out as many forms of revenue as you can.

3. Concentrate on content – make it useful

The bigger your blog, the more traffic you’ll get from the search engines, and the more readers you’ll attract. Therefore, concentrate on creating good content for your blog. All the time you spend on content will be rewarded.

4. Remember to use keywords in your posts

Once your blog’s a few months old, the search engines will start sending you traffic. Keep that traffic coming by writing posts which include keywords, but don’t go overboard. If you keep writing, you’ll attract many “long tail” searchers.

5. Publicize your blog

Once your blog’s making some income, set aside a portion of that income to promote your blog. There are many ways in which you can advertise your blog; again, experiment to see which forms of advertising work best for you.

Watch for other bloggers’ advertising, and if you can see that bloggers are advertising in a particular area month after month, you can be sure that it’s profitable for them, and will perhaps be profitable for you, too.

So there you have five easy blogging tips which will help you to create a profitable blog.

Discover the secrets to making money blogging with Angela Booth’s blogging bestseller, “Blogging for Dollars”. Angela’s blogging ebook has a companion blog, the Blogging for Dollars Blog, which offers you daily blogging tips.

How To Modify WordPress Permanent Link Structures

Not many people know about the importance of Wordpress permanent link structures. Basically, the wordpress permalinks or permanent links are LINKS to the individual wordpress pages. Wordpress permalinks is very important for search engine optimization. In fact, the first thing you must modify after installing wordpress is the permalinks.

Below is an example of search-engine-friendly permalinks,

http://online-business-journey.com/blog/seo-tips/power-of-links-for-your-website/

If you don’t modify your pemalinks, by default it will look like this…

http://online-business-journey.com/?p=123

Which one do you think is more optimized for the search engines? The answer is very obvious.

So how to modify your Wordpress Permalinks?

Here are the steps…

1. Log on to your wordpress dashboard.
For example, in my case, I go to http://online-business-journey.com/blog/wp-admin

2. Once you’ve successfully logged on to your wordpress dashboard, click on “Options” (see the red arrow)

3. Now, click on “Permalinks”

4. In the Custom options, select the 4th option “Custom, specify below”

5. Now, type in “/%category%/%postname%/” (without the quotes) in the field and click “Update Permalink Structure”.

6. DONE!

The permalink structure “/%category%/%postname%/” will display both your category and post name which is very search-engine-friendly.

For more information on how to optimize your Wordpress blog, go to “Wordpress Adsense System“.

I always get asked this question…

What is the best way to get FREE traffic from the search engines without knowing a lot about SEO and without spending a dime?

My answer is always this… “start blogging“. It’s very easy to start a blog!

Assuming you already have a topic in mind and you do have some knowledge and interest in that topic, THEN just head over to www.blogger.com, create a free account and start blogging.

Blogger is belong to Google and it’s the best platform for newbies to start their online marketing experiences. It’s so easy to use, if you know how to use the free email systems such as Yahoo or Gmail, you will know how to use blogger.

Other reasons why you should start blogging are…

1. It has all the necessary tools for you to start making your marks online. You don’t have to worry about the technical stuffs like registering a domain, get a hosting account, developing a website, etc.. All you need to do is to log on to your blogger account, start writing and then click on “publish”. Your blog will go live immediately!

2. Search engines love blogs. If you put in fresh content regularly on your blogs and learn some basic SEO, your blogs will rank well in the search engines. This will help to grow your online presence very quickly.

NOTE: Go to “SEO TIPS” to pick up some basic knowledge of SEO.

3. People love fresh content. Again, fresh content is key here. It’s not only loved by the search engines but also human beings. If you can provide up-to-date information on a specific topic, people will come back and visit your blog.

For more serious individuals.

If you’re looking to market your business, passion or hobby online for long term, the better alternative than blogger blog is self-hosted WordPress. It’s also a very popular blog especially for those serious internet marketers. WordPress has two versions: free wordpress and self-hosted wordpress. Both are free except that the latter requires you to have your own domain and hosting account.

If you want to go for the free version, I suggest you go with Blogger because it’s so much easier to use and flexible. Note that if you go for the free versions (blogger or wordpress), all your content are belong to the host.

On the other hand, if you have a self-hosted blog such as WordPress, you’ll get to own everything. If you’ve a long-term plan for your online presence, then I strongly advise you to go for the self-hosted Wordpress blog.

P.S. If you’re a newbie, check out this book “Wordpress Adsense System“. It will teach you step-by-step how to quickly set up and optimize your wordpress blog. You will also learn how to drive traffic to your blog and monetize it with Adsense. It’s a bible for wordpress users. If you’re serious wanting to market online, this book is worth checking out.