Why indeed? Simple. It’s a lot more secure than the earlier versions. If you’ve been reading up on the latest internet developments, you’ll learn that Robert Scoble’s Blog has been hacked, and now he says he’s not feeling too secure about wordpress anymore. Nor should you or me though we’re way down the blogging food chain compared to the Scobleizer.

Matt Mullenweg however says you shouldn’t be and this is why.

I recently helped a friend upgrade his Wordpress account to the latest release. It took quite a bit of work because he was still on version 2.3.3 which means we had to install the Auto Upgrade plug-in and start from there. If your blog is running much recent versions of Wordpress, then it’s just as easy as clicking on the update now that show when you’re in your admin page. It only takes a couple of minutes and voila, you’re updated.

Upgrades or updates are there for a purpose, more often than not these upgrades are released to counter or fix a vulnerability that allows unscrupulous people to exploit such weaknesses. By installing your upgrades, which is free by the way, you remove the risk of getting attacked. And really that’s a no brainer.

Here’s me trying my hand at explaining the ramifications of these terms. First two words have something to do with comment links (you can argue that these two words may pertain to any link and you will be right, but in this case I am limiting my explanation to the links found in the comments area) while the last one goes well with hotdogs and bonfires and is generally considered delicious.

Ok, here we go.

Most blogging platforms are inherently NoFollow, which means that any link (usually author’s URL) included in a comment will not pass PageRank. I say most because I haven’t tried out all the blogging platforms out there. And even if I say “All” I could still be wrong. Either way I’m screwed. The relevance of not passing PageRank is that the link that you included in a comment that you made will not have any value as far as your PageRank is concerned.

We all know that backlinks are supposed to count as a vote of approval for your blog, however if that backlink is NoFollow, it’s like shooting blanks. Alright control your overactive imagination. Now what it doesn’t mean however is that search engines will not crawl these nofollow links, they will, and they’ll come a-knockin’ on your door, but that’s just it. Although these links are still counted as one of your backlinks, they’re just not that valuable.

DoFollow links on the other hand are the kind of links you want. Spiders crawl them and they’re considered an affirmative vote in your favor. So if you’re on a link building mission with the intent of skyrocketing your PageRank via a commenting strategy, you would be much better off seeking out those DoFollow blogs. Here’s a DoFollow community that you could join to get you started.

So You Want Your Blog To Be DoFollow Eh?

A bit of caution on this one. DoFollow blogs are easy target for spammers so I recommend that you enable comment moderation for you to sort out which ones to grant your precious Dofollow link. If you don’t have the stomach for this, better stick to nofollow. Still there’s a valid argument to be made for making your blog DoFollow. For one, it motivates your regular readers to comment which could result to a lovely discussion on your posts. Fair enough?

Now, if you use WordPress, you’re in luck. There are a lot of DoFollow plugins out there starting with this one. Or if you want to make things a bit more manageable(remember my note on spamming? this is a good tool to mitigate that), you can use this one– this is an interesting plugin that only activates DoFollow for commenters after they’ve posted a number of comments. Very nice huh?

Now if you’re on blogspot, go switch to Wordpress!

Kidding. Actually here’s this tutorial for blogger’s beta template that you can use. It’s actually very easy to follow. Again, better turn on that comment moderation thing before you do this.

But What About CommentLuv?

What about it? It parses the visitors last blog post and that’s it. Unless the DoFollow plugin is installed, it’s still NoFollow.

Or not. :)

The above image is a graphical comparison of the feedburner subscription numbers of four awesome websites;

1. Mashable
2. 43Folders
3. SmashingMagazine
4. and erm., Third World Geek (hehehe)

There’s no competition really, I just want to share this cool little Feedburner comparison tool called Feed Compare. This baby does not just to show how you stack against your competitors, it can also be used to call the bluff of those shady sites who claim to have oodles of subscribers.

I wasn’t able to update this blog as much as I wanted to because of some whatever reason. But now that I’ve finally gotten around to doing what’s supposed to be done, I came face to face with a rather daunting task for a wordpress newbie– modifying my free wordpress template so it won’t look like one of those cookie-cutter themes.

Because I used to be a Blogger fan boy (I think I still am except that I’ve migrated my blogs to wordpress), I am somewhat perplexed as to what to do first. Since I have a self-hosted wordpress installation, I had to deal with changing permissions and making sense out of all the wordpress .php files. I guess all that practice in modifying blogger templates did pay-off. Still I managed to make a decent (still not perfect) job I guess. Although, man, Internet Explorer likes to make a mess of things.

How I Came Up With My Gorgeous Wordpress Template

Let’s see, I started with a whole lot of searching in the internet for the template that would suit my needs perfectly. I wasn’t really sure what I want exactly but I know I want a widget-ready wordpress template, and it has to have 3 columns. I also wanted a template that would allow me to display ads in the sidebar, and something that’s adsense ready as well.

The good thing and the bad thing about Wordpress is that it has a lot of beautiful templates that are offered absolutely for free. It’s a good thing because you have a lot of choices but at the same time it’s a bad thing as well because without a clear template in mind, you could be overwhelmed by the choices in display.

After several days of searching for the perfect wordpress template, I finally stumbled on Dezzain Studio where I got to see the Timeline Theme for the first time. I was instantly drawn to the color combination and the features embedded in the theme. So I worked on putting all the necessary wordpress plugins and widgets and did a little template tweaking until I was satisfied. Now it still retains its proud form but somehow I’ve managed to insert a little of me here and there.

And then I came across this wordpress template collection at WPZoom. Holy guacamole, I may have to change my template again. Gah.

Next up, I’ll be compiling my ten best free wordpress templates.

This free SEO eBook could not have come at a better time. I have recently migrated my free Blogger blog to Wordpress and I was anxious to do everything right the first time. Luckily I found a good Wordpress resource from the Search Engine Journal site. This resource is a FREE WORDPRESS SEO eBOOK authored by Mihaela Lica of http://ewriting.pamil-visions.com. I have been an avid subscriber of Search Engine Journal and have religiously read their articles everyday. I find most of their posts to be very helpful for bloggers.

The FREE SEO eBOOK is especially written for Wordpress although it can be adapted to apply to other blogging platforms as well. Although the SEO techniques described therein is very basic from the point of view of an SEO expert, to a newbie blogger like me, the techniques were very helpful. The FREE SEO eBOOK covers general topics from installing Wordpress to link building tips.

I especially liked the part where that very helpful Wordpress plugin, All-in-one SEO Pack was discussed. It’s very enlightening and made me realize the mistakes I’ve been doing all along.

I strongly suggest and recommend that you download and read the FREE WORDPRESS SEO EBOOK.

Man this is some work. I have read almost all the how to’s on painless beta blogger migrations to wordpress and I have to say this is excruciating work! Still after having finally done it, everything seems worth the hours spent in front of my computer. A lot of the experts agree on two things to do the migration but with usually the same goal/s in mind– ensuring that the previous links don’t get broken and all that google juice and pagerank will not go to waste.

In my previous free blog I have already cranked up the PR meter to PR4 and have managed to land in the first page of some very competitive keywords. The problem was I was using a free account. I really should have started with a dotcom from the very start. Had I done that, I wouldn’t have to go through all the research I did in order to migrate successfully.

But still, there is a silver lining in all of these. Had I started with a dotcom from the get go, I wouldn’t have learned about 301/302 redirects, .htaccess, and all those meta tags redirect methods that a lot of experts were betting their nuts on as surefire remedies to the pain of migration.

The first instructions I did consider was Techcounter’s instructions, but the loooongg queu of questions scared the heck out of me. Then there were a lot of others in between before I arrived at bloggerbloke’s site. At first I had it made with his very nifty .htaccess system. It really worked for him and I think for others too. Even I was convinced I had it down pat. I typed my redirected blog address and voila, I was taken to blogger’s redirect page and then eventually to this site. It’s all good, except that in bloggerbloke’s case, there’s none of that temporary blogger stop.

I was prepared to live with it until I clicked on some of the permalinks pointing to my own blog. It did the usual redirect and ended up with a 404 error. I kinda slipped back down to earth after that. I had to play my final ace. I tapped on the great Wordpress reserve for help. And there it was, the plug-in created by Sam Wong — the Blogger Redirector. I installed the template and removed the .htaccess code I pasted earlier. Everything worked real well after that. Including the permalinks.

I have already placed the noindex,nofollow meta in my old blog hoping that I won’t be penalized for duplicate content. I’ll also try to do a little 302 redirect so the search engines would know that I have moved to a new location and then later on will do the permanent 301 redirect.

Right now, my concern is how to get out of that blogger temporary stop when any of my link or my url is typed. I also have to work a little bit harder promoting this site. Also some of my internal links (of course they came with the migration) are still pointing to the old blog! I still have to see if there’s a quicker way of changing these internal links behaviour so they will recognize their new location. However I only have very few internal links to modify in case I decide to do everything manually.

It may take me a couple of weeks more to finally say that I have moved successfully and comfortably here in my self-hosted Wordpress. But I’m not really that worried. After all, Rome wasn’t built in a day.

If you happen to be here and you have some questions about migration, shoot me a note, I may not be an expert yet but with all the internet literature I’ve read and the kinks I’ve encountered, I may just be able to offer a few insights.

Cheers!

Before reading further, I suggest you read this article first — Why Do You Want To Blog — this is my way of ensuring that you get your head straight. Blogging may be easy and fun but it burns a lot of time. Make sure that you don’t waste yours by thinking about the questions posed in this article.

Ok, assuming that you already have all your ducks in a row, the first and very important thing that you need to tackle is this.

Should you get a .Com or not?

There are many arguments surrounding this question. But most of the time the counter-argument is always THE COST. Why would I shell out money for something that I will be doing for fun and only in my free time? Why indeed?

I believe a little background is in order.

There are two very powerful blogging platforms in the internet today– Blogger, and Wordpress. Sure there are others like Xanga and Typepad and if you’re Pinoy, there’s I.ph. And all of these blogging platforms are free. Before I get ahead of myself, blogging platforms are the sites/technology that allow you to do your blogging. So if these are free, then why the need to go the .Com way?

For one, it’s for aesthetic purposes. These platforms will allow you to use their services for free and will assign a sub-domain for you. Example; if you use blogger, your blog site’s name will be http://your-blog.blogspot.com; for wordpress it will be http://your-blog.wordpress.com and so with other blogging platforms. You see how many characters you need to put in the browser window to get to your site? Whereas if you get your own .com or your own domain, your blog will be http://your-blog.com. It’s like getting a free rent (using free blogging platforms) and owning your own real estate (with your own .Com). See the difference?

Another counter-argument for having your own .Com is that you need to host it. By hosting it means that you need to have some place or a ‘host’ that will allow you to store your articles, pictures, videos. And yes, you have to pay for that too. An exception to this is Blogger. Blogger allows you to host your articles, pictures, videos in their servers even if you want to have your own domain name or .Com.

Cost Considerations

Oh yeah, costs money versus free. Actually a no-brainer right? But let’s have a clear mind about this and examine how much all this will cost you, assuming that you are curious about having your own internet real estate.

First is the domain name. The running rate now is around $6 – $10 USD/year. If you take advantage of Yahoo!’s offer, you can get a domain name for $1.99 for the first year and then regular pricing for the second year.

Next is the hosting company. You can get a hosting plan for as low as $14 a year. I even got a hosting plan a couple of months ago for only $7/year.

So in terms of economic comparison, there’s the free ==>$0 versus your own home for around $25/year. How does this feel for you now?

Now What?

My suggestion is you keep a cool head about this one. Nobody is rushing you. You have all the time in the world to make this decision later (but not so later). I say, get your hands dirty first with blogging. Sign up for one of those free blogging platforms first and then see if you can hack it for a period of time writing stuff that interests you. I’m saying this because with blogging it’s easy enough to get hooked. Once you get to interact with other bloggers, see people visiting your site, there’s a surreal thrill that comes along with this very popular media.

[Here's a little article I made comparing the merits of Blogger and Wordpress which I hope will guide you when you choose your blogging platform. You don't want to be thinking about other platforms at this point.]

But, as I said, you need to go back to thinking about getting your .Com after a few weeks or a couple of months(not more than 2 please). The reason for this is because, after your free blog is in existence for some time and you have felt the rush in doing this thing, the powers that be, in this case Google and Technorati and Alexa, will start rating your site. Trust me, when that time comes when you’re getting serious and you have all these nice looking Ranks and Authorities, you’d wish you got your .Com from the very start because when you allow a lot of time to elapse before getting your own domain, you will have to let go of all these beautiful Ranks and Authorities and start from scratch.

Don’t let these things bother you at this time though, I will be talking more about this one as we go along this series. The important thing right now is immersing yourself in this blogging experience. Go out there and write your fingers off. Have fun.

Looking at the things I’ve posted so far, I’ve come to notice how random my entries have become. Most of the time I’ve talked about things that interest me, and those that I’ve learned as I journey everyday towards the twilight of blog understanding. I’ve never really focused on one central idea so to speak. Which is just fine considering that blogging is supposed to be free and the blogger has all the rights in the world to talk about what he fancies as long as the things being talked about are within legal bounds. I surely don’t want to post something that would get me into trouble.

Recently, blogging has become really, really interesting for me. It has been interesting from the start, but now as I gained a lot of insights towards this popular media, I felt the need to share something to those who are starting out. There may be a couple of things here that might be of interest to newbie bloggers but there seems to be no continuity in which those new to blogging can really follow to make their journey as meaningful as they’d like it to be.

As such, in my next posts, I’ll be focusing on the basics so that those who are taking baby steps towards blogging can learn directly from what I have learned so far and not go groping in the dark as I once did. I will still be interspersing my posts with those things that interest me, but for the most part, I’ll be cataloguing some of those I’ve come across as I grew in experience as a blogger.

Watch this site, there may be something for you here in the following days.

Commented On is a new application that you folks may be interested in. This is a bookmarking application that keeps track of all the sites where you have placed a comment. Oftentimes we just place a comment on a blog we may have just stumbled on and then forget all about that comment.

This has been a nagging problem with me before, especially during my rampant bloghopping days. I’d just comment away and forget all about it as I move to another blog. Sometimes I feel really frustrated because some of those blogs that I’ve visited are really good and I would have really wanted to visit them again. So much so that I was contemplating of creating some sort of a mash-up that would allow me to store all my comments and the related sites where those comments were submitted. Thankfully, with Comment On, I didn’t have to create one. Not that I would be able to create one anyway.

I think the only thing here is if you have a lot of blogs and you use a lot of pen names or aliases. I haven’t really tried creating multiple accounts but I believe it should be possible.

Check this one out, it would surely be worth your while.

If you are looking for pinoy blogs that sport the commentluv plug-in, look no further. I have listed below some of these blogs for your convenience.

My criteria for including blogs here is of course, they’re pinoy blogs, they’re current, and they have the commentluv plug-in installed. I hope that when they see their blogs here, they would be moved to linking mine as well (I wish).

To the uninitiated, commenting on blogs with commentluv plug-ins is one of the easiest way to build backlinks for your blogs. Backlinks (in case you do not know yet) boost your rankings, higher rankings significantly improves your paid post opportunities, paid post opportunities lead to more money, and of course more money leads you to the dark side of the force. Kidding.

But seriously, if you are thinking of improving your traffic via a commenting strategy, then you might as well hit two birds with one stone by commenting on blogs with the commentluv plug-in enabled. You not only fulfill your goal of introducing your blog to others (thereby gaining potential visitors), you also get backlinks to your blog. What the commentlub plug-in does specifically is, when you comment on one of these blogs, it will seek out your blog and display a link to your last blog post right under your comment. Sweet isn’t it?

Aboutmyrecovery| Chuvachienes| Makimeji
Alphadf| Conradmiguel | Mawesadobo
Amorfrancis | Ebooktechie | Modpinoy
Annie-thejourney | Entrepreneur | Mon-bric-a-brac
Archon-digital| Fengguillermobrum| Naptimerocks
Atmaxplorer | The Quickstop Project| Niftygaloot
Babyface | Jaypeeonline | Noeesnook
Babyrambutan | Jessie-simbulan | Pinoybizblogger
Balutpress | Jpsimbulan | Pinoyconsole
Bendzg | Jrocas | Pinoyinsingapore
Blog2learn | Kabalyero|Pinoytechguy
Bloggingmix |Knoizki |Pinoytek
Bloggista | Laurganism | Pinoytux
Bluepanjeet| Leandroarban| Promdiliving
Chartherct| Lloydlopez| Radiantview
Raketscience| Sesantos.ph| Toni.marikit
Romelo | Silkenhut | Untwistedvortex
Sasha-says |Simplydeelytz | Websaytko
Serialgirlfriend | Techathand | Yevka

Just a friendly advise though, while the commentluv plug-in is one very cool widget, please do not comment just for the sake of making a comment. In other words, do not SPAM. Plain vanilla comments such as “Nice post!”, or “Nice article!” are too spammy if you ask me. Relate to the article, share a common experience, criticize! Don’t be a lazy commenter with your ‘blog hop’ or ‘was here’ comments. That’s ok when placed on tag boards or chat boxes, but when you pass these things off as comments just so you get a backlink, that’s just wrong. Most of the time, blog owners would just delete them so if you don’t have anything to share, move on to the next blog.