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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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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I am having probably the worst time upgrading to a newer version of wordpress that I have ever had. Some of the issues have just been plain dumb on my part.. this one wasn’t my fault and relatively easy to fix .

After making first post after the upgrade to WordPress 2.3 , I got an error with this string:

WordPress database error: [Table 'mydatabase.wp_post2cat' doesn't exist]

Turned out it was Google Sitemaps plugin . When I deactivated the plugin problem was gone.
You just have to upgrade to different version of Google Sitemap plugin:
Sitemap Generator Plugin for WordPress v3.0

Tags: Blogs and Blogging, WordPress Blog by Lisa Stewart
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LOVE this plugin! In EASILY allows for custom title tags in all of your wordpress posts. Instead of trying to weave keywords awkwardly into your post titles- you can use this to create custom title tags when posting in wordpress.

Download the plugin for WordPress 2 , SEO Title Tag 1.0, here .

and follow installation instructions below. If you are not comfortable editing code- don’t worry- it is quite simple- follow directions step-by-step and you should have no problems. Please post in comments sections if you are having difficulty and I will do my best to solve.

1. Upload seo-title-tag.php to your wp-content/plugins directory.
2. Activate the plugin.
3. Under Presentation -> Theme Editor in the WordPress admin, select “Header” from the list and replace:

   <title><?php bloginfo('name'); wp_title(); ?></title>

   (or whatever you have in your <title> container – it will vary from theme to theme ) with:

   <title><?php if (function_exists('seo_title_tag')) { seo_title_tag(); } else { bloginfo('name'); wp_title();} ?></title>

4. Under Options -> SEO Title Tag, specify a title tag for your home page which will override your blog name as the home page’s title tag. You can also configure here whether you want all the rest of your site’s title tags to have your blog name, or a shortened version of your blog name, or neither, appended to the end.
5. Define category descriptions in the admin under Manage -> Categories. When defined, these will be used in place of category names in the title tag on category pages (e.g. yourdomain.com/archives/category/uncategorized/)
6. As desired, you can add a custom field called title_tag (or whatever you alternatively specified as the custom field name under Options -> SEO Title Tag) to any post or Page which will be used as a replacement title tag, specifically and only for that page. Don’t like the title tag for a particular post? No problem: just define a custom field when writing or editing a post or page in the WordPress admin. Custom Fields is above the “Delete this page” button. You may need to hit the plus sign to the right of Custom Fields to expand that section. The Key is title_tag (unless you’ve changed it in the Options) and the Value is whatever you want that post’s/page’s title tag to be.

Tags: Internet Marketing and Blogs, SEO Tools, WordPress Blog by Lisa Stewart
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