Like many bloggers I have been using Google Adsense to fill some advertising space on this website, specifically the horizontal banner after the first post on the front page, and also on single post pages just before the comments. I’ve got the Google Adsense code running in a three way split with Amazon and Performancing ads.
Though this blog is fairly new I still feel it has enough content for Google’s crawlbots to understand what it is about, which is why I’m disappointed to see ads like this appearing:
Neither of these really have anything to do with this site (though I can sort of understand the ads for cranes, the word “crane” is far from the most widely used keyword on the site… “WordPress” anyone?).
So its time for Google Adsense code to go. I’ll be keeping the Amazon and Performancing ads for now running a simple A/B split. Google ads may make a comeback later on as I’ve had some success on other blogs with them, but on this blog the relevancy is just too far off the mark.
Gaps in your blog posting schedule can happen for any number of reasons. You may be travelling, fall ill, have a family event, or maybe you’re just letting your blog go. A lack of posting frequency can lose you readers, so what can you do about it?
Let it go
The most common outcome of a lack of posting is that it is the first sign a blog owner is letting their blog die. Of the millions of blogs started each year relatively few get past the initial burst of “Hello world!”, “Here’s this cool thing I found today!”, “I’m eating for lunch…”, and then nothing. It is so easy to start a blog for free that letting them go is just as easy for most people.
Make an excuse
The next most common outcome of a lack of posting is an excuse post explaining the absence, maybe apologising for it, and usually promising a renewed commitment to posting more often. The “Sorry I haven’t posted in a while but…” post is very often the last one before the blog is simply let go.
Use it for a post idea
What am I doing right now? My last post was the 11th of August followed by a two week gap and now I’m writing a “What to do about gaps in your blog posting” post. Another method would be to use it as a lesson learned, such as when we travelled to New Zealand. I had every good intention of blogging while over there but ended up running into technical difficulties and some good old fashioned poor planning.
Just get on with it
Quite frankly this is my preferred approach. I subscribe to blogs I’m interested in via RSS, and follow enough of them that if one goes quiet for a week or two it doesn’t really bother me. I’d prefer my favourite bloggers sorted out whatever is keeping the preoccupied and then just get on with writing for their blog again when they’re ready. It takes a pretty long gap for me to start thinking about unsubscribing, so don’t be too alarmed if you need to take a break once in a while. Just fire up your browser and start writing again!
WordPress provides several methods for displaying blog posts on the front page of your blog, each with their own positives and negatives.
Method #1 - Split Posts
These use the <! –more–> tag (without the space) to mark a place in the post where it is “split”, and will then offer a link for the reader to click through to read the full post.
Pros: lets you choose where the post is split. Keeps longer posts from pushing other content too far down the front page.
Cons: also applies the split to your RSS feed for that post, which some readers will not like as they prefer to read the full article within their RSS reader.
Method #2 - Excerpts
Excerpts are short summaries or teasers of content, and can be displayed on the front page of your blog in one of two ways:
1) By using the_excerpt() tag in your WordPress theme, normally within the loop. This will show by default the first 55 words of the blog post.
2) By specifying an excerpt while writing your post. If an excerpt is specified in the Write Post admin page it will be displayed by the_excerpt() instead of the first 55 words of the post.
Pros: keeps long posts from pushing other content further down your front page. Lets you display many post titles and teasers on your front page at once.
Cons: can require more effort if you want to manually type an excerpt that is different to the opening 55 words of your post in order to be more enticing to readers. If your excerpt does not entice the reader to click through to the full post the rest of your carefully written blog post will go unread. Often means visually attractive post elements such as images are not shown on the front page.
Excerpts are used to good effect on such popular blogs as ProBlogger and BloggingTips.
Method #3 - Full Posts
Full posts are those that are shown in full on the front page of your blog by including the the_content() tag in your WordPress theme.
Pros: the entire post is shown on the blog front page which makes it easy for readers to read your entire blog post.
Cons: very long blog posts can push other content too far down the page where it will be missed by readers.
Which is best for your blog?
Each of the three methods described above offers its own positives and negatives. Often times the choice comes down to what kind of blog you are writing.
Excerpts work well on blogs with lots of medium to long blog posts as it keeps as many post titles “above the fold” (in view of the reader when they first arrive on your site) as possible, while still offering a summary of the content within the post not limited to just the post title alone. Excerpts also have the advantage that you can write a different excerpt for your post that is stronger and more enticing to the reader than the opening passage of the blog post itself.
Full posts have their own advantages and are well suited to blogs that post less frequently (say one every day or two) or that use images and other visuals to attract readers. Full posts are often used in conjunction with the <! –more–> tag so that the writer can choose which posts are long enough to justify splitting them, and which ones are short enough to just show in full.
Consider what kind of blog you are writing and how you want to draw visitors in to reading your blog posts so that you can choose the right strategy for your blog.
Keith Dsouza writes about some of the planned features for the WordPress 2.7 release. He mentions several features for which high quality plugins already exist, which is encouraging to see as it means the WordPress developers are paying attention to the extensive plugin community and working to roll some of the highest demand functionality into the WordPress core.
Two of the possible new features that caught my attention are automatic upgrades and batch post editing.
WordPress upgrades can be a painful process so building this into the core product could be a huge step forward in enabling WordPress users to keep their sites up to date for all of the critical security fixes. The WordPress Automatic Upgrades Plugin is the best upgrade method going at the moment and I hope the WordPress team makes the builtin functionality as easy to use.
Batch post editing is something that Keith only hinted at, but my hope is it will allow such functionality as creating a new tag or category and adding multiple existing posts to it in one action. This would make it much easier to update historical posts with this kind of information without editing each one individually or having to write custom SQL code.
You can read a few more hints about what is coming over at the WordPress Codex.
WordPress is currently at version 2.6 and version 2.7 is expected to be released by the end of 2008. In amongst that will likely be several minor version updates to fix security vulnerabilities and other serious bugs.
For WordPress users this can mean an almost endless cycle of testing and upgrading to new versions. I will describe the pros and cons of three WordPress upgrade methods.
Method #1 - Manual Upgrade
This method involves downloading the latest version of WordPress, unzipping it on your computer, and then using your FTP client to upload the files to your web host.
Pros: allows complete control over which files are updated, allowing you to preserve customised files.
Cons: 100% manual process, slow and tedious.
Method #2 - Fantastico Upgrade
If you installed WordPress with Fantastico you can use Fantastico to perform all of your upgrades as well.
Pros: quick and easy automated installation. Backs up your files for you before upgrading.
Cons: can take days after a new version is released before the Fantastico upgrade script is available. Wipes out any customised files as well as sometimes your .htaccess file. Doesn’t back up your database for you before upgrading.
Method #3 - Wordpress Automatic Upgrade Plugin
The WPAU plugin strikes a middle ground between the two previous methods.
Pros: allows you to upgrade sooner than Fantastico in many cases. Backs up both your files and your database and allows you a chance to download the backup zip files before the upgrade takes place.
Cons: sometimes not compatible with latest WordPress release causing you to have to wait for the plugin to be updated first. Wipes out customised files.
