Big Foot Web Marketing

What Theme Should I Use in Wordpress if Using Adsense?

Now there is the million dollar question. Which theme will get you the most money? Call me a purist, but in my opinion the answer is none. No out of the box wordpress theme will help you make the most money from Google Adsense.
There are some themes that will help you make more money than others INITIALLY . Some themes like, Prosense or MW- Monetizing the Web are samples of the many themes available that make it easier to automate the Adsense process.
These types of themes will save you some of the hassle of setting up your Wordpress blog for AdSense- but is the few hours of time saved worth it in the end? Nope.

The absolute KEY to getting the most money you can from your site is by tracking channels and content. Find out what ads are working and what are not. What topics are making you money ? The only way to do that is to set up your ads using channels and track their performance. The better your CTR the closer you are to the mark. Is is better to put your AdSense code below or above the post? Can depend. Shorter posts tend to better with ads above. Longer posts and article I have found get better CTR with ads are at the end of an article.

Setting up your blog INITIALLY you really should take extra time to format your ads yourself- not just plug in your Google publisher code and go. You won’t get a clear picture of what people are looking for. After you get comfortable and have a feel for what works Wordpress Adsense plugin can be a time saver. I wouldn’t suggest it for new blog or some one new to blogging and coding if they are trying to earn revenue from their site.

As far as themes go- I use this one often- Gila Wordpress Theme . I know it backwards and forwards and it is simple and clean. I am sure there are other themes that work just as well. I also like Light CMS Wordpress Theme .

Picking The Best Theme for Your Site

I always look for a 3 column design- 2 sidebars work better and are more flexible when it comes to adding Adsense, advertiser images, and other widgets .

Don’t get hung up on the colours- look at the layout. You can change colours fairly easily in the CSS file. It is not as intimidating as it may seem . It will be good for you to learn!

A word of caution- it is better to spend your time writing valuable content than to sit and play with themes. Pick a theme and build on it. If you are new to blogging or inexperienced with code then a simple theme is the way to go- less can go wrong and you will pick up PHP script faster and more easily- you can switch up later if you feel the need.

If you aren’t sure about the theme you are choosing- feel free to ask me for my opinion. Just post in comments section or email me.

Tags: Google Adsense, WordPress Blog, Wordpress Themes by Lisa Stewart
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*MY* Top Wordpress Plugins

Okay- these are my favourite Wordpres plugins, the one ins MY opinion are the bst and need to have. These are the ones I use everyday. These are the plugins that I upload immediately after I install a blog or even post for the first time. I like plugins that track visitors, see what they are reading and help provide more of what they are looking for. I also like plugins that help reader find what they need on the site and help the site get indexed- often the same thing.

1. Google Sitemap Generator Plugin This plugin creates compliant XML-Sitemap of your WordPress blog. Whenever you edit or create a post, your sitemap will be updated and all major search engines are notified about the update. Set up and forget about it.

2. a) SEO Title Tag Relatively simple to setup. Allows you to manually change the title tags ( the title that shows up in browser) of each post. You can also change your site title. If this means nothing to you- it will. If you are new to SE0 or setting up a blog for first time - the keywords in your title post are what search engines use to help identify your content for searchers. It can make for less awkward post titles 9 which by default is the title of that post’s page.

2. b) All in One SEO Pack plugin for wordpress. Is perfect. Easy to install an duse and does exactly what it says it will do. Customize your title pages and descriptions as well as know out duplicate content but adding noindex to your archive and category pages. A must have plugin.

3. Sociable Wordpress Plugin : This plugin puts social bookmarking site icon just at the bottom of each post- making it easier for easier to share in the favourite social media ( Digg, etc) .

4. Adsense Deluxe Plugin Allows you to use your customized Adsense code pretty much in the fly. Paste the code you have generated on the Google Adsense Site into options and be able to insert that code into a post, whenever you like. You can also used to insert pretty much any other type of code that use use frequently. The downside of the code is it does limit ability to track which ads are working- but it is a huge time saver to quickly put in your AdSense code. I don;t use it as much anymore- I prefer to do code up manually an track how different ads are working/reforming.

5. WP-Amazon : A plugin for Amazon affiliates. Use the plugin in to automatically add Amazon content to your post- with your affiliate ID. I don’t use it so much anymore. Latest version does NOT work with Wordpress 2.2 + and Internet Explorer.

6.Related Posts Wordpress Plugin, You can see it in action below this post. You can define how many related post to insert. Can be tricky to install if you are not familiar with code- instructions on the site may be difficult beginning bloggers. Related posts plugin will help reader find related material AND by cross linking helps site be indexed. A must have. I like this better than “most popular posts” type plugin, which can similar things in terms of cross-linking. I find that with busier sites the most popular posts can be artificially high- I have posts on popular siotes ranked as popular post becasue of spam artists looking for certain terms and aren’t necessarily what readers READ the most.

Do you have a favourite Plugin? Please share.

Tags: WordPress Plugins by Lisa Stewart
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You will get an error message like this:

WordPress database error: [Table 'db142936845.wp_post2cat' doesn't exist]
SELECT cat_ID AS ID, MAX(post_modified) AS last_mod FROM `wp_posts` p LEFT JOIN `wp_post2cat` pc ON p.ID = pc.post_id LEFT JOIN `wp_categories` c ON pc.category_id = c.cat_ID WHERE post_status = 'publish' GROUP BY cat_ID

It will be okay. You need to upgrade Google Sitemap Generator to version 3 or higher.

Tags: WordPress Blog, WordPress Plugins by Lisa Stewart
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Real Time Visitor Tracking Plugin

This has potential to replace mybloglog- which I am in love/hate relationship with right now. If you believe the authors- this is what that plugin is supposed to do:
Using and admin interface you can :

-track your visitors in real time.
- track visitors movement ( track their site navigation-how they come in where they go and where they leave)
- Keywords used to find your site
-referring site

I am going to try this out and install on a couple of high traffic site today. My hopes are high for this. It seems to do everything I was looking for in mybloglog as well as some of the stuff Google Analytics does.. on the fly and with in depth user tracking.
will get back and post my thoughts in next few days.

To download the WassUp Real Time Visitors Tracking plugin visit- http://www.michelem.org/wordpress-plugin-wassup-real-time-visitors-tracking/

and more you can view details on plugin authors site :http://www.michelem.org/wordpress-plugin-wassup-real-time-visitors-tracking/

Tags: Internet Marketing and Blogs by Lisa Stewart
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