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	<title>vAssistant Services &#187; Explanations</title>
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	<link>http://www.vassistantsvcs.com</link>
	<description>Presenting you to the world via WordPress sites and blogs.</description>
	<pubDate>Thu, 20 Nov 2008 06:00:01 +0000</pubDate>
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			<item>
		<title>The Autoresponder and Your Business</title>
		<link>http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/the-autoresponder-and-your-business/</link>
		<comments>http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/the-autoresponder-and-your-business/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 19 Nov 2008 06:00:33 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Suzanne</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Explanations]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Headline]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Autoresponder]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Electronic mailing list]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Email Marketing]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/?p=219</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Basically, an autoresponder allows you to automate some or many of your communications tasks, particularly the ones you find yourself doing over and over again. With all you have to do as a business owner, doesn’t it make sense to automate as much as you can? Particularly the activities that allow you and your personality to shine through your writing or speaking. With all the technology we have available today, you are not limited to using autoresponders to send written messages - you can send audio and video, too!]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class=""><p><img src="http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/autoresponders.gif" alt="" title="The Autoresponder" class="left" width="300" height="300" />The most basic autoresponder is a program which spits back an automatic email response to an action.</p>
<p>Have you ever emailed someone at work, only to receive an instant reply stating they&#8217;re out of the office until Monday and would you please contact so-and-so if you need help before then?</p>
<p><strong>That was an autoresponder in action.</strong> You sent an email and it sent a response&#8230;automatically. (<em>Hint: automatic response. Important!</em>)</p>
<p>Autoresponders are available today, however, that are much more sophisticated than the simple example above. They are available in many different versions, too. You can install an autoresponder script on your website or you can subscribe to an autoresponder service online. Many shopping cart systems now come with autoresponder features, as well.</p>
<p>Basically, an autoresponder allows you to automate some or many of your communications tasks, particularly the ones you find yourself doing over and over again. With all you have to do as a business owner, doesn&#8217;t it make sense to automate as much as you can? Particularly the activities that allow you and your personality to shine through your writing or speaking. With all the technology we have available today, you are not limited to using autoresponders to send written messages - you can send audio and video, too! </p>
<h3>The Role of an Autoresponder in Your Business</h3>
<p>Using an autoresponder is, at the very least, like hiring a secretary and can be leveraged into a virtual army of assistants helping to grow your business. Most autoresponders these days are much more robust than the simplistic example of the out of office message above. Some ideas about how to use an autoresponder include:</p>
<p>•	Automate the process of building a mailing list and complying with <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAN-SPAM_Act_of_2003" title="CAN-SPAM Act of 2003" rel="wikipedia" class="zem_slink">CAN-SPAM</a> laws<br />
•	Send requested information to prospects through one or more emails<br />
•	Train customers or new business builders step-by-step via email<br />
•	Remind subscribers of meetings and trainings via broadcast email<br />
•	Deliver newsletters to clients or prospects<br />
•	Build relationships by sending birthday or holiday greetings</p>
<p>…the possibilities are endless.</p>
<h3>A Few Tips That Really Make a Difference</h3>
<ol type="1">
<li>Just because it&#8217;s pre-written and scheduled, don&#8217;t go getting all stiff, formal and stuffy in your emails. Write each message as if you were writing to one person you knew really well. <strong>Let your real self speak!</strong> Remember, autoresponders are most often used as relationship building tools, so no sense having someone get to know the &#8216;fake&#8217; you, right?</li>
<li>Get to the point and then get outta there. <strong>Keep your emails short.</strong> People don&#8217;t have all day, so if you&#8217;re doing a training series especially, break your material up into several digestible emails. Baby steps. And remember to be yourself.</li>
<li><strong>If you can&#8217;t keep your messages brief, break them up with headings and bullet points.</strong> Make them scannable. Nothing puts off a reader faster than what looks like miles and miles of uninterrupted text.</li>
<li><strong>Be accessible and approachable.</strong> Include your contact information in each email and make sure you let people know how to get their questions answered.</li>
</ol>
<h3>A Frame of Reference So You Don&#8217;t Lose Your Mind</h3>
<p>Email marketing can make you crazy, if you let it. Heck, marketing, in general, can do that. <strong>The antidote to losing your mind is information, tracking, statistics and realistic expectations.</strong> So here are some guidelines to help you know what you need to aim for and where to adjust.</p>
<h4>Open Rate</h4>
<p><strong>My open rate used to make me the craziest. I&#8217;d look at how many people opened an email I sent and usually see something around 60% and I&#8217;d get all upset.</strong> I have had 100% open rates before and somewhere in my mind it stuck that it should always be at least 80%, if not more, if I want to call myself &#8220;successful&#8221; at email marketing. </p>
<p>Well, then I did some research and found experts saying, consistently, that <strong>marketers who have great relationships with their customers can get open rates as high as 40%.  WHAT?!?!  40% is good?!</strong> That FOREVER changed my perception of whether I was doing a good job. Heck, I was a veritable email marketing GENIUS and didn&#8217;t know it!</p>
<h4>Click Rate</h4>
<p><strong>Click rates (how many subscribers click the links you provide in your email) usually fall in the 1-3% range.</strong>  However, if you&#8217;ve got a great deal to give or have done a fantastic job creating curiosity, then you can see it skyrocket to the 8-10% range. <strong>Anything over that you&#8217;re off the charts.</strong> Again it all depends on that relationship you have with your customers. </p>
<h4>Bounce Rate</h4>
<p><strong>The bounce rate for an active, established list is usually under .5%.</strong> However, lists mailed less frequently can have bounce rates in the 5%-7% range, because people&#8217;s email addresses tend to change. </p>
<h4>Unsubscribe Rate</h4>
<p><strong>An active, established list usually has an unsubscribe rate around the .2-.5% range.</strong> A less frequently mailed email list can creep up to the 2-5% range. <em>Making sure your emails are relevant and timely is the best defense against people unsubscribing. </em></p>
<p>If you have any questions or I can be of any <a href="http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/services/">assistance</a> to you in your business, well&#8230;that&#8217;s what I&#8217;m here for. <a href="http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/contact-vas/">Contact me</a> anytime!</p>
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<h3>Related Posts</h3>
<ul class="related_post">
<li>No Related Posts Available</li>
</ul>
<p><p>&#169; 2002-2008, Suzanne Bird-Harris. <b>vAssistant Services</b></p>

<p><h3>Free Downloads for Subscribers</h3></br>
<ul>
    <li><a href="http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/gifts/wp-wiifm.pdf">WordPress: What's In It For Me?</a></br></br></li>
    <li><a href="http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/gifts/DIYSEOChecklist.pdf">DIY SEO Checklist</a></li>
</ul> 

<em>Try right-clicking and Save Link As to download</em></p>
</p>
</div>
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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>RSS: The SPAM-Free Subscription Alternative</title>
		<link>http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/rss-the-spam-free-subscription-alternative/</link>
		<comments>http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/rss-the-spam-free-subscription-alternative/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 16 Nov 2008 06:00:15 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Suzanne</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Explanations]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Blogging]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[building community]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[FeedBurner]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[RSS]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/?p=204</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[If you've been marketing online for any length of time, you've heard the adage, "The money's in the list." The list is your subscriber mailing list. You know...that list you work so hard to build so that SPAM filters and SPAM laws can make getting a message to your subscribers next to freakin' impossible? Yeah, that list.

But now, there's a new subscriber list kid in town: RSS.  He's a square looking dude, all orange and obvious, and he says to your visitors, "Pssst...when there's new stuff here, I'll let you know instantly. All ya gotta do is subscribe and it's yours - hot off the press, no waiting - with NO SPAM in the mix." And best of all, this little dude is FREE. No monthly fees...for you OR your subscribers.

So now what?]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class=""><p><img src="http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/bigrss.gif" alt="" title="bigrss" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-205" width="250" height="250" />Who among us doesn&#8217;t want to reduce the amount of SPAM we get each day? I mean, do you really need another email about Viagra? No, me either.</p>
<p>Awhile back, I wrote about RSS From a User Perspective, but today I want to talk to you about RSS as a SPAM-free subscription alternative.</p>
<h3>Which List Do You Build?</h3>
<p>If you&#8217;ve been marketing online for any length of time, you&#8217;ve heard the adage, &#8220;The money&#8217;s in the list.&#8221; The list is your subscriber mailing list. You know&#8230;that list you work so hard to build so that SPAM filters and SPAM laws can make getting a message to your subscribers next to freakin&#8217; impossible? Yeah, that list.</p>
<p>And you probably pay a fee somewhere to house your list, give you all kinds of nifty options of things you can do with your list (autoresponders, broadcast emails, schedule newsletters to go out in advance, etc.) while email gets more and more difficult to deliver. I swear I want to pull my hair out sometimes when I look at the dismally low open rates of some of the brilliant emails I&#8217;ve sent out to my various lists in my time.</p>
<p>But now, there&#8217;s a new subscriber list kid in town: RSS.  He&#8217;s a square looking dude, all orange and obvious, and he says to your visitors, &#8220;Pssst&#8230;when there&#8217;s new stuff here, I&#8217;ll let you know instantly. All ya gotta do is subscribe and it&#8217;s yours - hot off the press, no waiting - with NO SPAM in the mix.&#8221; And best of all, this little dude is FREE. No monthly fees&#8230;for you OR your subscribers.</p>
<p>So now what? Do you work on building two subscriber lists? A regular one and an RSS one?</p>
<h3>I Made the Switch and Here&#8217;s Why</h3>
<p>Back when this site was not built in WordPress, I built and maintained a regular opt-in subscriber mailing list with my aWeber account, and I sent out newsletters to my subscribers. Then I converted this site to WordPress and my newsletters became nonexistent almost because I was blogging here. It dawned on me that with a blog, I really didn&#8217;t need to have a newsletter, too. I mean, what for? Double the work? No, thank you very much.</p>
<p>Still not sure? Read <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/a/feed101;jsessionid=C4414214C354DA18D8775805500E6D3F.fb1" title="Feed 101">Feed101</a> over at <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.feedburner.com" title="FeedBurner">Feedburner</a>, the free service I use to make sure those of my subscribers who don&#8217;t want to use a reader and still want to get my stuff via email can. This way, when I post new content here, I&#8217;ve also just sent my &#8216;newsletter&#8217;, in effect. Genius! <strong>No more brain melts</strong> trying to decide what the heck to say in a newsletter that I haven&#8217;t already written about here. </p>
<h3>Feed Plugins I Use</h3>
<p>As <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/a/feed101;jsessionid=C4414214C354DA18D8775805500E6D3F.fb1" title="Feed 101">Feed101</a> states, there are a number of different protocols for RSS still, and no consolidation toward a single standard appears to be imminent. So, I use the <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/products/feedburner_feedsmith_plugin_2.3.zip">Feedburner Feedsmith Plugin</a> to detect all ways to access my feed (e.g. http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/feed/ or http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/wp-rss2.php, etc.), and redirect them to my FeedBurner feed <strong>so I can track every possible subscriber</strong>. It will forward for my main posts feed and optionally, my main comments feed as well.</p>
<p><strong>To thank my subscribers for subscribing</strong>, I use <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/rss-footer/">RSS Footer</a> to add links to freebies and additional content at the end of each post in my feed. These links aren&#8217;t visible here on the site anywhere - they&#8217;re only accessible if you&#8217;re subscribed to my feed. So, maybe you should <a href="http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/feed/">subscribe to my feed</a>, eh?</p>
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<h3>Related Posts</h3>
<ul class="related_post">
<li><a href="http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/diy-seo-step-6-commenting/" title="DIY SEO: Step 6 - Commenting">DIY SEO: Step 6 - Commenting</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/an-invitation-and-a-recommendation-for-you/" title="An Invitation and a Recommendation For You">An Invitation and a Recommendation For You</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/why-wordpress/" title="Why WordPress?">Why WordPress?</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/turn-off-post-revisions-for-single-user-blogs/" title="Turn Off Post Revisions for Single User Blogs">Turn Off Post Revisions for Single User Blogs</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/rss-from-user-perspective/" title="RSS From A User Perspective">RSS From A User Perspective</a></li>
</ul>
<p><p>&#169; 2002-2008, Suzanne Bird-Harris. <b>vAssistant Services</b></p>

<p><h3>Free Downloads for Subscribers</h3></br>
<ul>
    <li><a href="http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/gifts/wp-wiifm.pdf">WordPress: What's In It For Me?</a></br></br></li>
    <li><a href="http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/gifts/DIYSEOChecklist.pdf">DIY SEO Checklist</a></li>
</ul> 

<em>Try right-clicking and Save Link As to download</em></p>
</p>
</div>
]]></content:encoded>
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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Using DoFollow Is Like Signing a Letter of Reference</title>
		<link>http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/using-dofollow-is-like-signing-a-letter-of-reference/</link>
		<comments>http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/using-dofollow-is-like-signing-a-letter-of-reference/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 14 Nov 2008 18:09:20 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Suzanne</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Explanations]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[DoFollow]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[PageRank]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[SEO for WordPress]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/?p=208</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Your page rank is, among other things, a numeric representation of your reputation in Google's eyes. When you link out to other sites and allow the search engines to "follow" the links, it's like putting your reputation on the line and endorsing those sites you're linking to. Allowing the search engines to "follow" your links is like saying, "Yeah, they get my vote cuz I think they're good." Endorse a bunch of crap out there and what happens? Your reputation suffers. 

There are many, many things that increase your page rank (your 'authority' or 'reputation') and you work hard to achieve it. But you don't have to be in an <em>all or nothing</em> situation when it comes to putting that reputation at risk in order to help other bloggers.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class=""><div class="left"><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/7365168@N03/3012413440/" title="Signature" target="_blank"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3059/3012413440_c883b34cd8_m.jpg" alt="Signature" border="0" /></a><br /><small><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/" title="Attribution License" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/wp-content/plugins/photo-dropper/images/cc.png" alt="Creative Commons License" align="absmiddle" border="0" width="16" height="16" /></a> <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.photodropper.com/photos/" target="_blank">photo</a> credit: <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/7365168@N03/3012413440/" title="Hammer51012" target="_blank">Hammer51012</a></small></div>
<p>What&#8217;s DoFollow, you ask? Read <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/nofollow-dofollow-explanation/">NoFollow, DoFollow - Do You Know or Even Care?</a> first. Then you&#8217;ll understand <a href="http://www.delightfulwork.com">Tom</a> saying he&#8217;d heard that by being a Do Follow blog you somehow get less of a ranking with Google. If you&#8217;re willy-nilly about it, yes, you can hurt your <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PageRank" title="PageRank" rel="wikipedia" class="zem_slink">page rank</a>.</p>
<h3>Page Rank Is Like Your Reputation</h3>
<p>Your page rank is, among other things, a numeric representation of your reputation in Google&#8217;s eyes. When you link out to other sites and allow the search engines to &#8220;follow&#8221; the links, it&#8217;s like putting your reputation on the line and endorsing those sites you&#8217;re linking to. Allowing the search engines to &#8220;follow&#8221; your links is like saying, &#8220;Yeah, they get my vote cuz I think they&#8217;re good.&#8221; Endorse a bunch of crap out there and what happens? Your reputation suffers. </p>
<p>There are many, many things that increase your page rank (your &#8216;authority&#8217; or &#8216;reputation&#8217;) and you work hard to achieve it. But you don&#8217;t have to be in an <em>all or nothing</em> situation when it comes to putting that reputation at risk in order to help other bloggers.</p>
<h3>NoFollow Case By Case</h3>
<p>Though there are other plugins available, I use the <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/nofollow-case-by-case/">NoFollow Case by Case plugin</a> on my sites so I have control over whose comments I give &#8220;Google juice&#8221; to, and whose comments I don&#8217;t. You won&#8217;t catch me endorsing every stranger who crosses my path in real life, and I don&#8217;t do it online, either.</p>
<p>As this plugin&#8217;s name suggests, you can decide on a case-by-case basis whether or not to allow the search engines to &#8220;follow&#8221; the links left by your commenters.  The plugin&#8217;s default is to allow following, but let&#8217;s say some dork comes along who leaves a decent enough comment, but his site is tacky as hell, or a porn site, or screams SPAMville. Do you want to cast a vote of confidence to the search engines for this site? Uhhh&#8230;NO. And with this plugin, you don&#8217;t have to. You can, for just that one comment, put the NoFollow back and not sully your good reputation in the eyes of the search engines. Everyone else&#8217;s links will get your vote, but this one won&#8217;t. See? No all or nothing required.</p>
<h3>DoFollow Is More Work?</h3>
<p>Some of the people I&#8217;ve told about DoFollow, once they understand it, come back with the complaint that it sounds like it&#8217;s a whole lot more work.  That&#8217;s only true if you&#8217;re not monitoring your comments well in the first place.  If you are, then it&#8217;s not much more work to selectively reapply the NoFollow to the links that don&#8217;t cut the mustard. I mean, you&#8217;re usually looking at the sites of your new commenters, anyway, aren&#8217;t you? (Hint: You should be.)</p>
<h3>Join the DoFollow Blogroll</h3>
<p>If you&#8217;d like more exposure for your blog, you can <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.feverishthoughts.com/do-follow-bloggers/">join DoFollow bloggers</a> and let the world know you reward substantive comments at your blog with &#8220;Google juice&#8221; for the links.</p>
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<h3>Related Posts</h3>
<ul class="related_post">
<li>No Related Posts Available</li>
</ul>
<p><p>&#169; 2002-2008, Suzanne Bird-Harris. <b>vAssistant Services</b></p>

<p><h3>Free Downloads for Subscribers</h3></br>
<ul>
    <li><a href="http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/gifts/wp-wiifm.pdf">WordPress: What's In It For Me?</a></br></br></li>
    <li><a href="http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/gifts/DIYSEOChecklist.pdf">DIY SEO Checklist</a></li>
</ul> 

<em>Try right-clicking and Save Link As to download</em></p>
</p>
</div>
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		<item>
		<title>Anatomy of a Hyperlink</title>
		<link>http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/anatomy-of-a-hyperlink/</link>
		<comments>http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/anatomy-of-a-hyperlink/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 21 Jun 2008 05:07:46 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Suzanne</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Explanations]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/?p=54</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[If you don't consider yourself a 'technical' person, life online can get a little overwhelming at times. Even simple things like linking to another post or webpage from a post in your own blog can make you feel like a simpleton. Before you beat yourself up too much, let's get one thing straight, ok? You're not stupid because you don't know something. You just haven't learned it yet, ok? You have your own area of expertise, and if HTML, CSS and other web-related concepts aren't it - so what!?!]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class=""><p>If you don&#8217;t consider yourself a &#8216;technical&#8217; person, life online can get a little overwhelming at times. Even simple things like linking to another post or webpage from a post in your own blog can make you feel like a simpleton. Before you beat yourself up too much, let&#8217;s get one thing straight, ok? You&#8217;re not stupid because you don&#8217;t know something. You just haven&#8217;t learned it yet, ok? You have your own area of expertise, and if HTML, CSS and other web-related concepts aren&#8217;t it - so what!?!</p>
<p>Today we&#8217;re going to explore the basics of hyperlinks - what they are, what they do, how they do what they do, and how you can create them correctly with ease.  Ready?</p>
<p>Ok, first - a hyperlink is a clickable entity (either text or an image) that takes you somewhere else when you click it. They are created with the <strong>&lt;a></strong> HTML anchor tag. The <strong>&lt;a></strong> tag is a tag that requires closing, and you do that with <strong>&lt;/a></strong>. The <strong>&lt;a></strong> tag also has an attribute called <strong>href</strong> that you&#8217;ll need to define the destination of the click.  There are other attributes that can be defined, but we&#8217;re going to stick with the basics today.</p>
<p><code>&lt;a href="URL">clickable text&lt;/a></code></p>
<p>The <strong>href</strong> attribute value is typically the URL you want to link to. Because the URL is a defined value, it is enclosed in double quotation marks. So, you have the <strong>&lt;a></strong> tag with the destination of the link defined by the <strong>href</strong> attribute, the clickable text, and the closing <strong>&lt;/a></strong> tag - the 3 basic parts of a hyperlink. </p>
<p>So, let&#8217;s say you want to make the word <strong>hyperlink</strong> link to the definition of hyperlink at Wikipedia.org. Here&#8217;s the code you&#8217;d use to do it:</p>
<p><code>&lt;a href="<font color="blue">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperlink</font>&quot;>hyperlink&lt;/a></code></p>
<p>Now the word <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperlink">hyperlink</a> is clickable, and takes you to the Wikipedia.org entry for hyperlink if you click it.</p>
<p>WordPress makes it easy to create hyperlinks in your posts. First, highlight the text you want to be clickable, and then click the button that looks like a chainlink. A pop-up window will open up and you just paste the URL (from the example above, just the part in <font color="blue">blue</font>) in the Link URL box. Click the insert button, and BAM! You&#8217;ve just created a clickable link in your post!</p>
<p>See how smart you are? Now you can embed affiliate links in your posts that aren&#8217;t &#8216;in your face&#8217; to your readers. For example, let&#8217;s say I was recommending you get a basic HTML book called <strong>HTML 4 for the World Wide Web, Fourth Edition (Visual Quickstart Guide)</strong>, here&#8217;s the code Amazon provides for me to put in my post:</p>
<p><code>&lt;a href="<font color="blue">http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/032127847X?ie=UTF8&#038;tag=momsforlife04-20&#038;linkCode=as2&#038;camp=1789&#038;creative=9325&#038;creativeASIN=032127847X</font>&quot;>Creating a Web Page with HTML: Visual QuickProject Guide&lt;/a>&lt;img src=&#8221;http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=momsforlife04-20&#038;l=as2&#038;o=1&#038;a=032127847X&#8221; width=&#8221;1&#8243; height=&#8221;1&#8243; border=&#8221;0&#8243; alt=&#8221;" style=&#8221;border:none !important; margin:0px !important;&#8221; /></code></p>
<p>The only part I need from that is the URL in <font color="blue">blue</font> to follow my own directions above. All the rest is superfluous code. Here&#8217;s how it would display in my post:</p>
<p>I recommend <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/032127847X?ie=UTF8&#038;tag=momsforlife04-20&#038;linkCode=as2&#038;camp=1789&#038;creative=9325&#038;creativeASIN=032127847X">Creating a Web Page with HTML: Visual QuickProject Guide</a> for those who want to learn HTML.</p>
<p>And hey - really - if you want to get the book using this link, I&#8217;ll be happy to accept the change Amazon will give me for referring it to you. Not a problem!<br />
<h3>Related Posts</h3>
<ul class="related_post">
<li>No Related Posts Available</li>
</ul>
<p><p>&#169; 2002-2008, Suzanne Bird-Harris. <b>vAssistant Services</b></p>

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		<title>Defrag Your Hard Drive Regularly</title>
		<link>http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/defrag-your-hard-drive-regularly/</link>
		<comments>http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/defrag-your-hard-drive-regularly/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 30 May 2008 04:21:19 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Suzanne</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Explanations]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Computer Tips]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/?p=33</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Defragmenting (a.k.a. &#8216;defragging&#8217;) your hard drive is one of the best things you can do to speed up your computing experience. Here&#8217;s a simplistic analogy that will help you understand why it&#8217;s so important. 
Your hard drive is like a roll of toilet paper. As your computer writes files to it, it calculates the number of sheets required to hold the file and then goes hunting. Let&#8217;s say your file requires 3 sheets. Your computer goes and finds the first three contiguous sheets available that will fit that file and ...]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class=""><p>Defragmenting (a.k.a. &#8216;defragging&#8217;) your hard drive is one of the best things you can do to speed up your computing experience. Here&#8217;s a simplistic analogy that will help you understand why it&#8217;s so important. </p>
<p>Your hard drive is like a roll of toilet paper. As your computer writes files to it, it calculates the number of sheets required to hold the file and then goes hunting. Let&#8217;s say your file requires 3 sheets. Your computer goes and finds the first three contiguous sheets available that will fit that file and writes it on those sheets. Yay! File saved!</p>
<p>The next day you realize you have something to add to that file, so you open it up (the computer goes and finds those 3 sheets and brings their contents into RAM.) You add whatever you need to the file and click &#8217;save&#8217;. Your computer takes that file and goes back to those 3 sheets and - uh-oh - it won&#8217;t fit anymore. So, your computer will write what will fit on the original 3 sheets, and then has to go hunting for another sheet to hold the rest of the file. It finds the next available empty sheet 20 sheets on down the roll, and writes the rest of your file there. At the end of the original 3 sheets, it leaves a note reminding itself of where it wrote the rest of the file. Next time you open that file, it&#8217;s going to take a little longer for the computer to get it for you because now it has to go to two places, instead of just one. (On your hard drive, those sheets are called sectors.)</p>
<p>This is what happens with every file you create and modify, so you can imagine how fragmented your files can get over time. This is the reason you want to defrag on a regular basis. Defragging gathers up all those pieces of your files all over your hard drive and (with very few exceptions) writes the complete file in one spot. When it&#8217;s done, your files are in contiguous sectors and all the little &#8216;notes&#8217; about where to find the rest of the file are no longer necessary. Now, when you open up a file, it opens up more quickly because the computer doesn&#8217;t have to hunt all over the hard drive for all its pieces.</p>
<h3>Related Posts</h3>
<ul class="related_post">
<li><a href="http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/why-keep-25-free-space-on-your-hard-drive/" title="Why Keep 25% Free Space On Your Hard Drive?">Why Keep 25% Free Space On Your Hard Drive?</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/3-tips-for-faster-computing/" title="3 Tips for Faster Computing">3 Tips for Faster Computing</a></li>
</ul>
<p><p>&#169; 2002-2008, Suzanne Bird-Harris. <b>vAssistant Services</b></p>

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		<title>How Does Your Site Rank?</title>
		<link>http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/how-does-your-site-rank/</link>
		<comments>http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/how-does-your-site-rank/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 07 May 2008 11:03:14 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Suzanne</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Explanations]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Alexa]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[traffic rank]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Web Stats]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/?p=28</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[There are two main ways websites are compared and ranked and each of them has problems, but nonetheless, have become the &#8217;standard&#8217; measurement tools. The first is Alexa ranking and the second is Google PageRank.
Today I want to introduce you to your Alexa ranking. What the heck is that?  Well, it&#8217;s a popularity rank from the most popular site on the web on down. Today on the Global Top 500 list,  #1 is Yahoo.com. That&#8217;s out of all the websites on the Internet.  When you look at ...]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class=""><p>There are two main ways websites are compared and ranked and each of them has problems, but nonetheless, have become the &#8217;standard&#8217; measurement tools. The first is Alexa ranking and the second is Google PageRank.</p>
<p>Today I want to introduce you to your <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.alexa.com">Alexa ranking</a>. What the heck is that?  Well, it&#8217;s a popularity rank from the most popular site on the web on down. Today on the <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.alexa.com/site/ds/top_sites?ts_mode=global&#038;lang=none">Global Top 500</a> list,  #1 is <strong>Yahoo.com</strong>. That&#8217;s out of all the websites on the Internet.  When you look at just websites from the U.S., <strong>Google.com</strong> beats out Yahoo.com and pushes it down a notch to #2. But if you look at all English language websites on the net, Yahoo.com goes back up to #1 and Google.com is #2.<br />
<span id="more-28"></span><br />
Used to be, Alexa collected all their data from the use of their Alexa toolbar. If you haven&#8217;t heard of Alexa, then you probably haven&#8217;t downloaded their toolbar, and hence, all your Internet activity has not been incorporated into the data Alexa uses to determine popularity rank.  See the flaw?  Yeah, the data is collected from a severely small subset of Internet users&#8230;mostly geeky types (like me) who own websites and want to track these kinds of stats for their own sites. This data kinda leaves Average Joe User out of the equation, which has been the biggest beef people have had with Alexa Rankings&#8230;and rightly so.  </p>
<p>Last week, however, Alexa announced that they are going to begin to include data sources apart from their toolbar and the data they collect through installation and use of it. That&#8217;s really good news! They&#8217;re going to start using data from a much wider base of Internet users, so the Alexa Ranking is going to get closer to being what it says it is: an indication of the popularity of your website as compared to other websites on the &#8216;Net.</p>
<p>So&#8230;do you know your site&#8217;s Alexa rank? Go <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.alexa.com/site/ds/top_500">check it out</a>&#8230;it might be better than you think!</p>
<h3>Related Posts</h3>
<ul class="related_post">
<li><a href="http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/alexa-sparky-firefox-add-on/" title="Alexa Sparky FireFox Add-on">Alexa Sparky FireFox Add-on</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/statcounter-gives-real-time-stats/" title="StatCounter Gives Real-time Stats">StatCounter Gives Real-time Stats</a></li>
</ul>
<p><p>&#169; 2002-2008, Suzanne Bird-Harris. <b>vAssistant Services</b></p>

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		<title>NoFollow, DoFollow - Do You Know or Even Care?</title>
		<link>http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/nofollow-dofollow-explanation/</link>
		<comments>http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/nofollow-dofollow-explanation/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 30 Apr 2008 05:02:42 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Suzanne</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Explanations]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Blogs]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Build Traffic]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Link Love]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[NoFollow]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[WordPress]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[WP Plug-ins]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/?p=25</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[You may have heard some buzz about &#8220;NoFollow&#8221; or &#8220;DoFollow&#8221; and are wondering what do those terms mean? And more importantly, do you (or should you) care? If you&#8217;re a blogger, you should at least know what the terms mean and why, and probably should care (in my humble opinion.)
NoFollow refers to code in an HTML link that tells search engines not to follow that link:
i.e. &#60;a rel=nofollow href="http://www.yourwebsite.com">Your Website&#60;/a>
 We humans can still click on the link and be taken to the site it refers to, but the search ...]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class=""><p><img src="http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/ifollowblue.gif" alt="" title="ifollowblue" width="130" height="50" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-199" />You may have heard some buzz about &#8220;NoFollow&#8221; or &#8220;DoFollow&#8221; and are wondering what do those terms mean? And more importantly, do you (or should you) care? If you&#8217;re a blogger, you should at least know what the terms mean and why, and probably should care (in my humble opinion.)</p>
<p>NoFollow refers to code in an HTML link that tells search engines not to follow that link:
<pre><code>i.e. &lt;a <font color=red>rel=nofollow</font> href="http://www.yourwebsite.com">Your Website&lt;/a></code></pre>
<p> We humans can still click on the link and be taken to the site it refers to, but the search engine robots see that and skip it. </p>
<p>Ok, so what&#8217;s the big deal with that?<br />
<span id="more-25"></span><br />
Well, the big deal is that&#8217;s how search engines count &#8220;votes&#8221; for your site to (help) determine both your site&#8217;s popularity, positioning in search results and sometimes your page ranks. The idea is that the more links out there that point back to your site (otherwise known as backlinks), the more &#8220;authority&#8221; your site has. By having the <code>nofollow</code> code in there, it&#8217;s effectively telling the search engines, &#8220;Don&#8217;t count this link as a vote.&#8221;</p>
<p>Because of the ability of visitors to comment at your blog (which means site owners are no longer the only ones in control of links at their sites), blogs default to using the <code>nofollow</code> code in the links created by visitors leaving comments. </p>
<p>If you don&#8217;t use Akismet or some other spam comment filtering plugin and don&#8217;t have any kind of moderation settings in place for comments at your blog (which means anyone from anywhere can leave a comment and any kind of link along with it), then you&#8217;re better off leaving the <code>nofollow</code> code in place, because having links from your site to spammy sites or sites with &#8220;bad reputations in the eyes of the search engines&#8221; will actually hurt your site more than they will help.</p>
<p>But, if you <em>do</em> use spam comment filtering of some kind and you <em>do</em> at least look at the links left on your blog by commenters, then you might benefit from using a plug-in that removes the <code>nofollow</code> code from the links in your comments. Why? Because savvy bloggers know they can improve their own search engine rankings by creating backlinks to their sites through commenting on other blogs. And what do we all want for our own blogs? Comments! Interaction! Traffic! </p>
<p>If you make it known that you remove the <code>nofollow</code> code from your comment links, over time you&#8217;ll get more comments on your blog, which means more traffic, which means more people are reading what you&#8217;re publishing and your message has more reach. It&#8217;s called <em>link love</em> and the best way to get it is to give it first. Using a DoFollow plug-in for your WordPress blog is an easy way to give <em>link love</em> and reward your visitors who leave comments at your blog. A way to say an immediate, &#8220;Thank you for commenting here.&#8221;</p>
<p>In addition, you can join the <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.feverishthoughts.com/do-follow-bloggers/" target="_blank">DoFollow Blogroll</a> and a) sport that cool &#8220;You Comment, I Follow&#8221; badge you see in my sidebar on your own blog, and b) get more exposure for your site.</p>
<p>There are many plug-ins available to remove the <code>nofollow</code> code from your comments, but the one I use is <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/nofollow-case-by-case/#post-699" target="_blank">Nofollow Case by Case</a>. Instead of summarily stripping the <code>nofollow</code> code from all links, I can choose which ones I want to remove and which ones I want to leave. It also allows me to control <code>nofollow</code> in areas other than just my comments.<br />
<h3>Related Posts</h3>
<ul class="related_post">
<li><a href="http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/link-love/" title="Give Extra Link Love by Using the CommentLuv Plug-in">Give Extra Link Love by Using the CommentLuv Plug-in</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/diy-seo-step-6-commenting/" title="DIY SEO: Step 6 - Commenting">DIY SEO: Step 6 - Commenting</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/photo-dropper-wordpress-plugin/" title="Photo Dropper WordPress Plugin">Photo Dropper WordPress Plugin</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/why-wordpress/" title="Why WordPress?">Why WordPress?</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/use-gravatars-to-build-recognition/" title="Use Gravatars to Build Recognition">Use Gravatars to Build Recognition</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/blogs-for-the-brand-new-or-reluctant-blogger/" title="Get Started Blogging at WordPress.com">Get Started Blogging at WordPress.com</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/blogs-arent-just-for-writers/" title="Blogs Aren&#8217;t Just For Writers">Blogs Aren&#8217;t Just For Writers</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/self-hosting-your-wordpress-blog/" title="Self-Hosting Your WordPress Blog">Self-Hosting Your WordPress Blog</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/diy-seo-step-5-make-navigating-your-site-easy/" title="DIY SEO: Step 5 - Make Navigating Your Site Easy">DIY SEO: Step 5 - Make Navigating Your Site Easy</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/congratulations-christa/" title="Congratulations, Christa! ">Congratulations, Christa! </a></li>
</ul>
<p><p>&#169; 2002-2008, Suzanne Bird-Harris. <b>vAssistant Services</b></p>

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		<title>Blogs Aren&#8217;t Just For Writers</title>
		<link>http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/blogs-arent-just-for-writers/</link>
		<comments>http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/blogs-arent-just-for-writers/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 18 Apr 2008 17:00:34 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Suzanne</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Blogging]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Explanations]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Blogs]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Custom Uses]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[WordPress]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/?p=22</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Another reason why I prefer to work and build in WordPress is its flexibility. If you think blogs are just for those who like to write and have something to say, you&#8217;re missing out!
For example, my sister started a sewing business recently and I wanted to create a website for it so her customers could reach her online, so she&#8217;d have a place to show off her work, and so she could harness the power of the Internet to generate new customers.
A blog is not what she would have had ...]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class=""><p>Another reason why I prefer to work and build in WordPress is its flexibility. If you think blogs are just for those who like to write and have something to say, you&#8217;re missing out!</p>
<p>For example, my sister started a sewing business recently and I wanted to create a website for it so her customers could reach her online, so she&#8217;d have a place to show off her work, and so she could harness the power of the Internet to generate new customers.</p>
<p>A blog is not what she would have had me create, and even up to a year ago, a blog would not have occurred to me, either. But that was before I had immersed myself in WordPress.<br />
<span id="more-22"></span><br />
What she needed was a couple of reference pages and a way to show off her completed pieces, be they children&#8217;s clothing, bridal gowns, or curtains. </p>
<p>One of the drawbacks of sewing for others is that your completed work goes with your customer, so when new customers want to see examples of your work, they and you are out of luck unless you&#8217;ve taken pictures and have an easy way to show the new customer the pictures.</p>
<p>One option would be to create a physical photo album, but then you have to lug it around and it can get beat up in the process. Another drawback to a physical photo album is zeroing in on specific types of projects - how do you categorize? By type, color, budget, fabric&#8230;what? You pretty much have to pick one and then you&#8217;re stuck with it. A much better option is to have a web home for your pictures - one that looks professional, is not distracting, shows off your talents well and allows you to zero in quickly to see the types of projects your new customer is interested in.</p>
<p>So, we need a website, but one that&#8217;s easy for a non-programmer to update and maintain, one that will handle displaying of completed projects by all different sorts of criteria and is professional in its presentation. Enter WordPress! Once I do the programming that is necessary and get everything set up the way she wants it, I can hand the site over to her to update and maintain and go forward with. Then, the only time she&#8217;ll need me is when she wants something done or added to the site that requires technical know-how she doesn&#8217;t possess. Perfect solution for her and for me!</p>
<p>So, if you have a business or a project for which you&#8217;d like a web presence - think outside the box and consider what WordPress has to offer!</p>
<h3>Related Posts</h3>
<ul class="related_post">
<li><a href="http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/why-wordpress/" title="Why WordPress?">Why WordPress?</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/blogs-for-the-brand-new-or-reluctant-blogger/" title="Get Started Blogging at WordPress.com">Get Started Blogging at WordPress.com</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/link-love/" title="Give Extra Link Love by Using the CommentLuv Plug-in">Give Extra Link Love by Using the CommentLuv Plug-in</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/nofollow-dofollow-explanation/" title="NoFollow, DoFollow - Do You Know or Even Care?">NoFollow, DoFollow - Do You Know or Even Care?</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/self-hosting-your-wordpress-blog/" title="Self-Hosting Your WordPress Blog">Self-Hosting Your WordPress Blog</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/diy-seo-step-6-commenting/" title="DIY SEO: Step 6 - Commenting">DIY SEO: Step 6 - Commenting</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/diy-seo-step-5-make-navigating-your-site-easy/" title="DIY SEO: Step 5 - Make Navigating Your Site Easy">DIY SEO: Step 5 - Make Navigating Your Site Easy</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/photo-dropper-wordpress-plugin/" title="Photo Dropper WordPress Plugin">Photo Dropper WordPress Plugin</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/turn-off-post-revisions-for-single-user-blogs/" title="Turn Off Post Revisions for Single User Blogs">Turn Off Post Revisions for Single User Blogs</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/wordpress-26-is-now-available/" title="WordPress 2.6 is now available!">WordPress 2.6 is now available!</a></li>
</ul>
<p><p>&#169; 2002-2008, Suzanne Bird-Harris. <b>vAssistant Services</b></p>

<p><h3>Free Downloads for Subscribers</h3></br>
<ul>
    <li><a href="http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/gifts/wp-wiifm.pdf">WordPress: What's In It For Me?</a></br></br></li>
    <li><a href="http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/gifts/DIYSEOChecklist.pdf">DIY SEO Checklist</a></li>
</ul> 

<em>Try right-clicking and Save Link As to download</em></p>
</p>
</div>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/blogs-arent-just-for-writers/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Self-Hosting Your WordPress Blog</title>
		<link>http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/self-hosting-your-wordpress-blog/</link>
		<comments>http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/self-hosting-your-wordpress-blog/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 16 Apr 2008 22:24:32 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Suzanne</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Explanations]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Blogs]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Hosting]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Procedure]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[WordPress]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/?p=21</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I just finished a conversation with a friend who has had a WordPress blog hosted for free on WordPress.com for some time now, but is wanting to move to a self-hosted WordPress installation for a variety of reasons, most notably the limitations WordPress.com imposes on your ability to monetize your blog.
The biggest misconception he had about moving to a self-hosted installation was surrounding the issue of paying for a hosting account. My friend already has a website, in addition to his blog, so he already has a hosting account. He ...]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class=""><p>I just finished a conversation with a friend who has had a WordPress blog hosted for free on WordPress.com for some time now, but is wanting to move to a self-hosted WordPress installation for a variety of reasons, most notably the limitations WordPress.com imposes on your ability to monetize your blog.</p>
<p>The biggest misconception he had about moving to a self-hosted installation was surrounding the issue of paying for a hosting account. My friend already has a website, in addition to his blog, so he already has a hosting account. He thought to move his blog away from WordPress.com, he&#8217;d have to get ANOTHER hosting account, and pay another monthly hosting fee. Not necessarily so!<br />
<span id="more-21"></span><br />
For him, there will be no additional expense to self-host his blog, because he&#8217;s already paying for hosting for his website, and he can host his blog in that same account. For someone who has a blog on WordPress.com, but does not already own a hosting account, there will be the additional expense of a hosting account to move the blog away from WordPress.com.</p>
<p>Another question he had was about the order in which you do things to have a smooth conversion. Here is the order I recommend:</p>
<p><strong>If you do not already have a hosting account:</strong></p>
<ol>
<li>Get a hosting account (I can recommend <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Stribling Consulting Web Hosting" href="http://striblingconsulting.com/hosting.html" target="_blank">Stribling Consulting</a> or <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Everlast Hosting" href="http://www.everlasthosting.com" target="_blank">Everlast Hosting</a>, as I use both.) You&#8217;ll need at least 1 SQL database, so keep that in mind when you&#8217;re selecting a package.</li>
<li>Purchase a domain name, and set the nameserver information to point at your hosting account (if you don&#8217;t, you will have difficulty installing and setting up WordPress - it uses domain names, so that has to be working.)</li>
</ol>
<p><strong>If you already have a hosting account and a separate domain name for your blog:</strong></p>
<ol>
<li>Add the domain name to your hosting account (if your hosting account will allow hosting of multiple domains.)</li>
<li>Set the nameserver and IP address information for your separate domain name to &#8216;point to&#8217; your hosting account. (If your hosting account won&#8217;t allow hosting of multiple domains, you can usually upgrade your hosting package to one that will.)</li>
</ol>
<p><strong>If you already have a hosting account and do not want a separate domain name for your blog:</strong></p>
<ol>
<li>Create a subdirectory (usually called &#8216;blog&#8217;) on the root directory of your hosting account.</li>
<li>When installing WordPress, be sure to identify that subdirectory as where you want WP installed.</li>
</ol>
<p><strong>Then, proceed as follows:</strong></p>
<ol>
<li>Install WordPress</li>
<li>Install your theme of choice</li>
<li>Install and activate any plug-ins you want to use</li>
<li>Log in to your WordPress.com blog and use the Export function to create a WordPress eXtended RSS or WXR, will contain your posts, pages, comments, custom fields, categories, and tags and save it to your computer.</li>
<li>Once you’ve saved the WXR download file, login to your self-hosted WordPress blog and use the Import function import your blog. Now all your content from your old blog resides on your new blog! Cool, huh?</li>
<li>Begin blogging!</li>
</ol>
<p>Finally, don&#8217;t be afraid! The nice thing about all this is you can &#8216;mess up&#8217; without the earth shifting on its axis. And with all things computer - back up what you&#8217;ve got before you start!</p>
<p>If this looks like too much for you - <a href="http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/contact-vas/">contact me</a> for a free consultation. I&#8217;ll be glad to answer your questions and help you determine the most expedient, cost-effective way to self-host your WordPress blog. There are many, many options at almost every step of the process, so don&#8217;t be afraid to ask for help sorting it all out.<br />
<h3>Related Posts</h3>
<ul class="related_post">
<li><a href="http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/why-wordpress/" title="Why WordPress?">Why WordPress?</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/blogs-for-the-brand-new-or-reluctant-blogger/" title="Get Started Blogging at WordPress.com">Get Started Blogging at WordPress.com</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/link-love/" title="Give Extra Link Love by Using the CommentLuv Plug-in">Give Extra Link Love by Using the CommentLuv Plug-in</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/nofollow-dofollow-explanation/" title="NoFollow, DoFollow - Do You Know or Even Care?">NoFollow, DoFollow - Do You Know or Even Care?</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/blogs-arent-just-for-writers/" title="Blogs Aren&#8217;t Just For Writers">Blogs Aren&#8217;t Just For Writers</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/diy-seo-step-6-commenting/" title="DIY SEO: Step 6 - Commenting">DIY SEO: Step 6 - Commenting</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/diy-seo-step-5-make-navigating-your-site-easy/" title="DIY SEO: Step 5 - Make Navigating Your Site Easy">DIY SEO: Step 5 - Make Navigating Your Site Easy</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/photo-dropper-wordpress-plugin/" title="Photo Dropper WordPress Plugin">Photo Dropper WordPress Plugin</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/turn-off-post-revisions-for-single-user-blogs/" title="Turn Off Post Revisions for Single User Blogs">Turn Off Post Revisions for Single User Blogs</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/wordpress-26-is-now-available/" title="WordPress 2.6 is now available!">WordPress 2.6 is now available!</a></li>
</ul>
<p><p>&#169; 2002-2008, Suzanne Bird-Harris. <b>vAssistant Services</b></p>

<p><h3>Free Downloads for Subscribers</h3></br>
<ul>
    <li><a href="http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/gifts/wp-wiifm.pdf">WordPress: What's In It For Me?</a></br></br></li>
    <li><a href="http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/gifts/DIYSEOChecklist.pdf">DIY SEO Checklist</a></li>
</ul> 

<em>Try right-clicking and Save Link As to download</em></p>
</p>
</div>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/self-hosting-your-wordpress-blog/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>RSS From A User Perspective</title>
		<link>http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/rss-from-user-perspective/</link>
		<comments>http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/rss-from-user-perspective/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 10 Apr 2008 23:16:24 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Suzanne</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Explanations]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Feed Reader]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[RSS]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/?p=20</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[ RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is just that - a really simple way to syndicate your content across the web. Most blogging platforms create an RSS feed (the file that is syndicated) for you automatically, so you don&#8217;t have to do it yourself.
One of the greatest things about RSS Feeds is they allow you to get content from sites you&#8217;d otherwise have to visit individually to get. Think about that for a minute. Which would you rather do? Keep up with your 10 favorite blogs in one place, or visit ...]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class=""><p><img class="alignleft" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3284/2403659699_ea8b52413d_o.png" alt="" /> <strong>RSS</strong> (Really Simple Syndication) is just that - a really simple way to syndicate your content across the web. Most blogging platforms create an RSS feed (the file that is syndicated) for you automatically, so you don&#8217;t have to do it yourself.</p>
<p>One of the greatest things about RSS Feeds is they allow you to get content from sites you&#8217;d otherwise have to visit individually to get. Think about that for a minute. Which would you rather do? Keep up with your 10 favorite blogs in one place, or visit 10 different blogs everyday to see if there is new content?</p>
<p>Your feed reader (also referred to as RSS readers, feed aggregators, news readers or search aggregators) will automatically show you any new content from any of your subscriptions, which is really a timesaver given that different blogs post with different frequencies - some daily, some weekly, etc. The nice thing is, you can still click through to the site or blog the content came from to see other content.</p>
<p>There are many feed readers available. I use <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Bloglines" href="http://www.bloglines.com" target="_blank">Bloglines</a>, because it&#8217;s web-based and available anywhere there&#8217;s an Internet connection and I like the way I can organize my feeds.<br />
<h3>Related Posts</h3>
<ul class="related_post">
<li><a href="http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/rss-the-spam-free-subscription-alternative/" title="RSS: The SPAM-Free Subscription Alternative">RSS: The SPAM-Free Subscription Alternative</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/why-wordpress/" title="Why WordPress?">Why WordPress?</a></li>
</ul>
<p><p>&#169; 2002-2008, Suzanne Bird-Harris. <b>vAssistant Services</b></p>

<p><h3>Free Downloads for Subscribers</h3></br>
<ul>
    <li><a href="http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/gifts/wp-wiifm.pdf">WordPress: What's In It For Me?</a></br></br></li>
    <li><a href="http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/gifts/DIYSEOChecklist.pdf">DIY SEO Checklist</a></li>
</ul> 

<em>Try right-clicking and Save Link As to download</em></p>
</p>
</div>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/rss-from-user-perspective/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		</item>
	</channel>
</rss>
