Here’s the news. On my own blogs (which all use HeatMap Ads Theme naturally of course) I use very few plugins at all.

“Why is that?” I hear you ask.

The answer is that I built HeatMap Ads Theme to contain just about all the features I needed to get up and running with a monetised blog without adding any more plugins than is absolutely necessary so I can just install the theme and be up and running with ads on my content in very short measure.

True, there are a few specialised plugins which I do use, but these are at a minimum (and I’ll explain more about those in later posts).

SEO to the max times 10!

One of the first things that some bloggers do is go straight for an SEO plugin, and then go about optimising every single heading, link, page and post up so each is SEO’d within an inch of its Google life. The good news is that if you’ve got some great content and fire it up using Heatmap Theme that you’ve got much of the SEO covered already, and yes, there are extra tweaks you can do for even better SEO performance right within HeatMap Theme.

Of course much what is considered “good SEO jiggery pokery” is just a matter of opinion and observation, and that’s why in the user guide for HeatMap Theme I tell you straight up how I’ve implement its SEO strategy. It works for my blogs, maybe it will work for yours, and of course you are free to change it or add one of those Ultimate-SEO-to-the-Max plugins if you think there is a better way to skin the proverbial Google search cat (I have better things to do with my time though).

Meta Keywords are Dead. Long Live Meta Description!

Apart from creating top rate content, one of the most important things I have found is to make sure that I always fill out the Meta-Description tag,  both through the HeatMap Options Page (which sets the meta description for the home page) or through the custom field ‘meta-description’ which defines the description for each individual page or post. Google often picks up on the meta description and returns it directly in results pages.

When it comes to meta keywords though, Matt Cutts from Google reports that these are ignored, but just in case you are ever so slightly over extra (like me) then you won’t be able to let this old habit die, so HeatMap Theme lets you specify those too.

Google Services to the Max too!

When I made this theme I was also wanted to make it super-easy to take advantage of free Google Services such as Feedburner, Analytics and of course Adsense, so I built in all the features required to get hooked up with these too. No plugin-installing and no WordPress theme hacking required.  Its almost a one stop shop for all services Google. I built it as a time saver for me. Maybe it will be a time save for you too.

End of Ranting Time…

Okay I’ve run out of ranting time for extolling the virtues of HeatMap Theme. There is much more under the hood but I will have to publish another stream-of-conciousness about all that later.

See you on the HeatMap Insider Forum!

When I started on my current WordPress Pro Geek path I made one of the wisest decisions I have ever made. I bought a membership to a Premium Themes site.

Why was this such a wise investment?

I got some great looking themes that worked straight from the off, and I was able to set up my blog very quickly.

I got access to a great community of people who were also committed (financially) to doing the ‘blog thing’.

If I ever got stuck with anything I always got an answer from someone who knows the product.

It got me committed, as I paid what I considered at the time a substantial amount for access to great themes, great support and a great community.

I continually have access to all the latest theme updates, and the latest thinking in theme design as I move forward with my own themes.

Today, my Premium Theme account continues to be a great decision and my upfront investment has paid off many-fold.

HeatMap Ads Theme is a Premium GPL Supported Theme (even though you can download it for free!)

At the time of writing entry into the HeatMap Insider community is just $35 right now. We’re a new ’boutique’ community of people committed to the monetised blogging niche, and I invite you to join us if that’s your thing. You might find that its one of the best investments that you make. You’re getting in on the ground floor of something very exciting.

If, however, you are looking for more general alternatives I recommend you try these other wonderful premium supported GPL WordPress theme providers via my affiliate links…

• StudioPress (highly recommended – from personal experience)
• iThemes (very well regarded in the WordPress Community; my graphic designer friend John MediaMojo swears by the IThemes Flex Theme)
• WooThemes (also highly regarded)

Its not the best looking piece of software in the world. In fact the administration interface some would say is downright homely, but still, its a beauty that shines deep from within.

Affiliate link alert! – This post contains my affiliate link to Amember (cool!)

The software I am talking about is Amember, and I use it to facilitate signups to the HeatMap Insider Forum.

Many of the top WordPress Theme developers also use Amember. Its paid software, and in my opinion worth every penny, as it just makes the whole process of managing things so much easier. I also purchased the add on plugin to hook up PhpBB to Amember and once I had digested the instructions everything just slotted together without a hitch. I was up an running with it within a day, even after making my little customisations.

If you are using HeatMap Theme for more than just monetising your content and are thinking of moving onto selling your own products then I can heartily recommend Amember to you. It just works. I like it when things do that.

There must be greener grass to be munched upon in the other ad network paddocks? Right? Surely Google hasn’t got the whole market stitched up? hmm…lets see!

Here’s a few alternatives for your itchy adsense feet that might provide for interesting and lucrative experimentation…

Just a quick note before you start…

Affiliate link alert! This post contains affiliate links. I just wanted you to know that.

Some ad networks can be picky when you apply (and rightly so), so before you submit your application make sure that everything is looking spick and span, that you’ve mowed the lawn and the loose wiring is firmly tucked away to maximise your chances of obtaining an account.

The Ad Networks

Chitika

Chitika works by tuning the ads the reader sees to the search term the reader has just typed into a search engine just before they visit your site. Ads are only shown to visitors coming from search engines though and only to visitors in the US and Canada. Chitika ads disappear if a visitor comes to your site directly, or is not within the US or Canada.

Chitika is compatible with Google Adsense and you can run Chitika Ads on the same page as Adsense.  Give them a go if you have lots of US and Canada traffic. [visit Chitika]

WidgetBucks

WidgetBucks specialises in product showcase ads which you match to your sites content by picking from various categories. The ads do scream “I am an ad”  in an animated widgetty-cool sort of way.

If you have a blog which is aimed at the kind of visitor who is looking for the types of products that WidgetsBucks promotes then it could be worth giving them a run.  Get an account and have a look for yourself. [Visit WidgetBucks]

AdBrite

AdBrite provides a range of ad displaying alternatives such as banners ads, text ads, full page ads and inline ads which pop up when you roll over a link. You also have the option to approve the ads that show on your site.

If you like to play with lots of different ad formats then Adbrite my be fun for you. [Visit AdBrite]

WordPress 3 now supports multiple blogs – so this post is for historical purposes only. Long Live WordPress!

-

I’m going to tell you something and this may absolutely shock you to the core. We’ll actually I’m fibbing. Nobody is surprised by anything these days, and the best I can probably hope for is a half raised eyebrow and vague disinterest. I digress. Here it is anyway…

If you are the kind of person who likes to run multiple blogs then I definitely do not recommend that you use WordPress.

There, I said it.

“But…but…!” I hear you stammer in mock disbelief.

Wait…there’s more..

Did you know that WordPress has a big brother? He’s called WordPress MU and he can do things that his light-weight sibling cannot, which are to the advantage of people (such as me and possibly you) who have more than one idea(!), and therefore like to have the facility of being able to host more than one blog on a single installation of WordPress.

So I lied. Actually I do recommend you use WordPress for multiple blogs, WordPress MU that is!

All you potential multi-blog-owning impresarios, just think of it…

The ability to deploy a whole new blog using a subdomain, subdirectory or optionally with a whole different domain name almost at will. (wow!)

The ability to update your blog templates and have those updates flow across all of your blogs (double wow!) Only one WordPress installation to upgrade. (oh this is getting far too exciting… be still my beating heart) (Yes I know the ‘Footprint’ brigade are raising eyebrows right now saying ‘now let me tell you’ but your probably doing shady stuff anyway. I’m not at all interested in that. I’m in it for the original content long haul and generating genuine popularity, which I’m confident will win out over time.)

Oh, and I almost forgot, it plays nice with Heatmap Theme, which comes in lots of different colours, one of which is probably going to be suitable for each new blog you deploy.(**absolutely bloody brilliant!**Where do I sign up???)

“Oh but isnt WordPress MU reeeeally, reeeeally too complimacated for us non-technical, non-bearded, non unix wielding blogging types?” I hear you ask.

Once upon a time it was, and there was sticky post right there on the WordPress MU forums called “Is WordPress MU for You” that told you so in no uncertain terms. Thankfully times have changed and that excrutiating facially haired post is no longer gracing the home page anymore. Slowly and quietly MU been getting easier and easier to install, such that a trained budgie might be able to do it, with just a few extra steps required over and above a regular WordPress install, plus a couple of plugins you need you configure to get it working with add-on domains and caching so it doesn’t blow up your el-cheapo shared hosting account (which it will inevitably eventually do when your blog becomes a really big success – the lure of a dedicated server beckons).

I use a HostGator Reseller account for my various blogs and if you are considering installing MU then I heartily recommend HostGator to you. Once you know which switches to switch in the HostGator cpanel then it all works a treat. You might be interested to know that I’ve set up a short tutorial over on the HeatMap Insider just for you, to impart those  little nuggets that you need to know  (your mileage may vary on other cPanel based hosting accounts ).

Happy multi-blog empire building! Mu-hahahah!

“Hang on a sec”, you say “look at all these ads on this blog…there’s loads of them!” (Actually these are pretend ads, not real, for demo purposes only – Google has rules which prohibit ads on demo sites).

Of course, this site is here as much as anything to give an indication of where the ad positions are on HeatMap Theme, so you can get a few ideas for your own placement as well as picking up a few useful tips along the way.

I made HeatMap Theme so we could experiment and figure out what positions work particularly well for our unique content, and then build the user experience around that.

If you are new to all this it may surprise you that if you analyse your stats carefully that there are probably only a few ad positions that are really worth keeping on your blog, and these can vary from blog to blog. Its all about balancing the readers experience with monetisation through advertising. High quality glossy magazines do this all the time.

So, to sum up, if you are just starting out, try just filling a few of the ad positions at first and see how they perform. Move the ads around and compare. You’ll probably find you don’t need quite as many ads on your blog as you thought you did.

Heading 1

Heading 2

Heading 3

Heading 4

Heading 5

Heading 6

Paragraph

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, test link adipiscing elit. Nullam dignissim convallis est. Quisque aliquam. Donec faucibus. Nunc iaculis suscipit dui. Nam sit amet sem. Aliquam libero nisi, imperdiet at, tincidunt nec, gravida vehicula, nisl. Praesent mattis, massa quis luctus fermentum, turpis mi volutpat justo, eu volutpat enim diam eget metus. Maecenas ornare tortor. Donec sed tellus eget sapien fringilla nonummy. Mauris a ante. Suspendisse quam sem, consequat at, commodo vitae, feugiat in, nunc. Morbi imperdiet augue quis tellus.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, emphasis consectetuer adipiscing elit. Nullam dignissim convallis est. Quisque aliquam. Donec faucibus. Nunc iaculis suscipit dui. Nam sit amet sem. Aliquam libero nisi, imperdiet at, tincidunt nec, gravida vehicula, nisl. Praesent mattis, massa quis luctus fermentum, turpis mi volutpat justo, eu volutpat enim diam eget metus. Maecenas ornare tortor. Donec sed tellus eget sapien fringilla nonummy. Mauris a ante. Suspendisse quam sem, consequat at, commodo vitae, feugiat in, nunc. Morbi imperdiet augue quis tellus.

List Types

Definition List

Definition List Title

This is a definition list division.

Ordered List

1. List Item 1
2. List Item 2
3. List Item 3

Unordered List

• List Item 1
• List Item 2
• List Item 3

Tables

Misc Stuff – abbr, acronym, pre, code, sub, sup, etc.

Lorem ^superscript dolor _subscript amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Nullam dignissim convallis est. Quisque aliquam. cite. Nunc iaculis suscipit dui. Nam sit amet sem. Aliquam libero nisi, imperdiet at, tincidunt nec, gravida vehicula, nisl. Praesent mattis, massa quis luctus fermentum, turpis mi volutpat justo, eu volutpat enim diam eget metus. Maecenas ornare tortor. Donec sed tellus eget sapien fringilla nonummy. NBA Mauris a ante. Suspendisse quam sem, consequat at, commodo vitae, feugiat in, nunc. Morbi imperdiet augue quis tellus. AVE

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet,
 consectetuer adipiscing elit.
 Nullam dignissim convallis est.
 Quisque aliquam. Donec faucibus.
Nunc iaculis suscipit dui.
Nam sit amet sem.
Aliquam libero nisi, imperdiet at,
 tincidunt nec, gravida vehicula,
 nisl.
Praesent mattis, massa quis
luctus fermentum, turpis mi
volutpat justo, eu volutpat
enim diam eget metus.
Maecenas ornare tortor.
Donec sed tellus eget sapien
 fringilla nonummy.
NBA
Mauris a ante. Suspendisse
 quam sem, consequat at,
commodo vitae, feugiat in,
nunc. Morbi imperdiet augue
 quis tellus.
AVE

“Too Cool For School.”
-Blockquote