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BarCamp Indianapolis Set For February 9th

By StrangeWork.com: The BarCamp Indianapolis date has been set! It will happen on Saturday February 9th 2008 from 9:00 AM – 2:00 PM at the Unleavened Bread Cafe here in Indianapolis.

BarCamp Indianapolis
BarCamp is simply a tech conference ran by the attendees of the conference. Attendees are encouraged to give presentations/demos on their strengths.

The event is now listed on Upcoming. If you plan on attending get registered to help the organizers get a solid number of attendees to expect.

For more information visit the official site at barcampindy.org

Make sure you get registered and show your support for local tech gatherings in Indianapolis!

How To Increase Blog Traffic part 1: Google Webmaster Tools

By StrangeWork.com: I was asked by a couple friends of mine, Brooke and Toni, about how to get more traffic to their blogs. I decided to write a quick tutorial to help everyone learn a couple techniques I use to help rank higher in search engines.

Google Webmaster Tools

Google Webmaster Tools have been around for a while now, but many bloggers do not know how to utilize these tools to increase blog traffic. I use two quick and easy techniques, Sitemaps and Robots.txt, that I will discuss in this article.



Add Your Blog Sitemap

Step 1: Find Your Blog Sitemap

A blog sitemap is an XML feed of every link available on your blog. By default most blogging platforms, including WordPress, Blogger, and Moveable Type, have an RSS feed preinstalled on your blog. An RSS feed is a feed made using XML so there is no setup, it’s already there!

Examples for popular blog platforms:

WordPress – http://www.blogname.com/rss
Blogger – http://blogname.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default
Moveable Type – http://www.blogname.com/atom.xml
Feed Burner – http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogname

Just replace blogname with the name of your site. Use the examples above to figure out what your feed URL is. You will need it in the next step.

Step 2: Load your blog sitemap in to Google Webmaster Tools

Visit the Google Webmaster Tools Home Page and login to your Google account. If you don’t have a Google account, register one real quick.

Once logged in to the Tools dashboard you will see a textbox at the top allowing you to add your blog:

Google Webmaster Tools Dashboard Screenshot

Type your site URL in and click the “Add Site” button.

Next you will need to Verify your blog to Google. Click the “Verify your site” link and follow the instructions given by Google.

Once you have verified your blog click the “Sitemaps” menu item from the left hand side and click the “Add A Sitemap” link.

Select “Add General Web Sitemap” when asked to Choose Type. You will then see a text box to enter in your RSS feed URL like this:

Add Sitemap Tool

Enter your feed URL and click the “Add General Web Sitemap” button and your done! Once Google verifies your feed is in the proper format they will then crawl your feed daily to look for new links.

The benefit of providing Google with a sitemap is to help them improve how they crawl your blog. Over time you will start to notice an increase in search engine ranking which will result in more traffic.



Add Your Robots.txt File

Step 1: Update/create your robots.txt file

A robots.txt file is a small text file placed on your blogs web server that tells search engines what they are allowed, and not allowed, to index on your blog. Most blogs come with a robots.txt file preinstalled. Check to see if your blog has one by visiting the following URL on your blog:

http://www.blogname.com/robots.txt

Just replace blogname with the name of your site. We are going to create a new robots.txt file so it doesn’t matter if you do not currently have a robots.txt file on your blog.

Create a text file named robots.txt on your desktop. Enter the following code in to your newly created file:

User-agent: *
Disallow:
Sitemap: http://www.blogname.com/sitemap.xml

User-agent: * – indicates to all search engines they are allowed to crawl your site
Disallow: – incidates what URLs to exclude from being crawled by search engines. Since we are not entering a value to the right we are telling all search engines to crawl everything on your blog
Sitemap: http://www.blogname.com/sitemap.xml – indicates to the search engines where your sitemap is located. Use the sitemap link from the previous tip.

Save your file and upload to the root directory of your server. Google looks for a robots.txt file on your blog once a day. You can verify that Google finds your file by visiting the following Webmaster Tool section:

Dashboard > Tools > Analyze robots.txt

That’s it! Now all search engines will know where your sitemap is located from your robots.txt file. The major benefit of this is to help search engines find your new posts and links easier.

Google Webmaster Tools offer some really great statistics about how Google crawls and indexes your blog. Make sure you poke around in the other sections.

To install a true Google Sitemap be sure to check out the Google Sitemap Generator Plugin for WordPress.

I hope you find these tips helpful! Stay tuned for part 2.

WordPress Weekly Podcast Records Tomorrow

By StrangeWork.com: I’ve been invited by Jeffro to participate in a weekly podcast on TalkShoe.com called WordPress Weekly.

WordPress Weekly Podcast on TalkShoe.comWordPress Weekly will discuss WordPress related news, tips and tricks for using WordPress, plugins, updates, and everything else involving WordPress. We will be recording new episodes every Friday evening at 9PM EST on TalkShoe.com.

Be sure to join us during the live taping of WordPress Weekly and get involved! Call in to the show and ask questions, give suggestions, or tell us about your experiences with WordPress.

We plan on having a great time and I’m sure it will be entertaining. Hope to see you there!

WordPress Weekly TalkShoe Information:

Talkcast Name: WordPress Weekly
Talkcast ID: 34224
Phone Number: 724-444-7444

Leave 2007, it’s 2008’s turn!

By StrangeWork.com: And here we are at another year down. It was a good year all around, but I’m looking forward to 2008.

End of the YearI have a bunch of great projects in the works for 2008 that should make for a fun year! I hope to be announcing some shortly after the new year.

SnapFoo.com is growing steadily. Being in beta using the invite only method is a great help in scaling the launch.

iHotties.net is making a comeback with a soon to be launched FaceBook app.

I have a couple podcasting gigs in the works. No details yet, but soon…very soon!

Here’s to you and yours this New Years! I hope all the best for you in 2008! RAWK!

End of the year dash!

By StrangeWork.com: Well it’s almost a new year and I’m in my usual dash to the finish line. I’m always real busy this time of year.

Me, My Dad, and Da Raiders!I just returned from my Oakland trip with my Dad. We went to the Raiders vs. Colts game on Sunday and witnessed magic! The Raiders held their own! Course we all know Real Mean Wear Black right?

I recently passed my one year of blogging mark. My first post was on Dec 5, 2006 about my innovator goal. Still working on it.

An Interactive Hotties Network Facebook app has begun development. It’s about half-way there.

I won’t be posting as frequently until after the new year, but I’ll be right back in the thick of it for 2008!

Be sure to show support for Susan Reynolds. Amazing show of support from Twitter and Flickr.

If you’re going to San Francisco, what should you do?

By StrangeWork.com: besides wearing flowers in your hair? Ok that was a bad Scott McKenzie reference. I’m leaving tomorrow morning for sunny Oakland/San Francisco for a mini-vacation with my Dad. The main reason for our trip is to watch the Oakland Raiders smash the Indianapolis Colts. Of course by “smash” I mean “get slaughtered by”, but being able to watch the Raiders play at HOME will be an amazing experience regardless of the game outcome.

Oakland Raiders LogoI’ve been a Raiders fan since I was 12 years old watching Bo Jackson shred defenses, but have never witnessed the Raiders play at home. I was always the fan rooting for the Raiders when they played the Colts in Indianapolis. Well no longer!

So back to my original question. What should I do in Oakland, San Francisco, or Palo Alto? Are there any spots I have to visit? As a web 2.0 junkie this is a pretty significant trip. Some of the top websites call Palo Alto home and I would hate to miss some of the top spots simply because I don’t know of them.

So let’s hear it. Where should I go? What should I do? Any top restaurants? Comment away!

IT Indianapolis Peer Group Meeting Live Streaming Tonight!

By StrangeWork.com: Tonight I will be attending the second meeting of the IT Indianapolis Peer Group! Pat O’Day, the CTO of BlueLock, will be presenting his VM World conference presentation for us.

VM World Presentation Information “As one of the only 100% Virtualized Service Providers in the country, BlueLock has a unique and detailed perspective on many of the myths and realities of running virtual environments. Pat O’Day is BlueLock’s Chief Technology Officer and the architect responsible for the environments running in BlueLock’s facility today.”

Should be a great presentation. I’m looking forward to learning more about virtualization, more specifically virtualizing database servers and any performance issues that might come of it. Be sure to tune in tonight at 5:30pm EST for the live stream via Ustream.tv.

Ustream.TV link: http://ustream.tv/channel/it-indianapolis-peer-group

Startup Weekend Launches New Podcast: Startup the Show

By StrangeWork.com: StartupWeekend.com recently launched a new podcast called Startup the Show.
Startup the Show Podcast
Hosted by Andrew Hyde of StartupWeekend.com and Rana Sobhany of RoleShare.com, Startup the Show will discuss startups, culture and business. They will also be interviewing many founders of companies from their startup weekend adventures. New episodes will be released three times a week from various Startup Weekend locations.

After listening to their first full episode it’s obvious there is a great chemistry between the two hosts that should equate into a great show! Be sure to tune in for each episode, I know I will!

Who knows, maybe they will have me on someday to talk SnapFoo!

The Crunchies Awards are Open for Nominations

By StrangeWork.com: The Crunchies Awards are now open for nominations.
Crunchies Award Badge 2007
This is the first year for the Crunchies, which is a collaboration project between GigaOm, Read/WriteWeb, VentureBeat and TechCrunch. The Crunchies is a competition and awards ceremony to “recognize and celebrate the most compelling startups, internet and technology innovations of the year.”

Nominations are open now until December 12th at midnight PST. Some of the categories include Best new start-up of 2007, Best bootstrapped start-up, Best use of viral marketing, Best use of viral marketing, and more!

With four of the biggest powerhouses in the industry coming together, the Crunchies are guaranteed to be a huge hit and something we will all strive to be a part of!

Make sure to get your nominations in today!

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Brad Williams Blog

WordPress and the Web

Who is Brad?

Brad Williams picture

Brad Williams is a computer programmer and tech junkie who enjoys exploring technology and sharing his knowledge and experience with others.

 

CEO of WebDevStudiosMaintainn, and Pluginize. Co-author of Professional WordPress and Professional WordPress Plugin Development.

 

Brad resides in Philadelphia.

 

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