Enter The Net

WordPress Users: Activate Akismet to Eliminate 97% of Your SPAM Comments.

The WordPress comment system on Posts and Pages (like the “Leave A Reply” section at the bottom of this Post) is vulnerable to getting Spam Comments. Who knows why people write programs to send wave upon wave of spam comments to our Posts, but they do.

[Actually, the reason they do this is to get incoming links - read an article here to learn how comments should REALLY  be used to improve incoming links.]

Thankfully, every WordPress site comes with a totally adequate free plugin called Akismet. Akismet will eliminate almost all the Spam Comments before they ever reach you. The plugin is simple to activate. Once you start it up, it just simply starts working. If you ever worry that Akismet might be stopping more than you want (as if!) then you can look at the blocked comments, usually up to 30 days after they were blocked.

The only catch is that you need to prove that you, in fact, are human. This is Akismet’s way of verifying that you are the blog owner. And drawing breath. And mostly carbon-based. Etc. To do this, you need to get an API Key from WordPress. Below are the only slightly convoluted directions in how to do that.

To get an Akismet API Key

• Go to WordPress.com
• Click Sign Up Now
• Next page asks for information. Fill it out.
• You do NOT need to create a blog on WordPress to get the API Key, so you can select “Just a username, please.” If you decide to create a blog, it’s cool: you will still get the API Key.
• Once done with this, you will then be told that an email is being sent to activate the account.
• When the email arrives, be sure to click the activation link.
• After that, just wait. Another email will arrive titled “New WordPress.com User:…” This has your API in it, at the lower part of the message.
• The API Key will be a longish series of numbers and letters: “0hhj78c43sx”
• Save this API Key somewhere. It can be used multiple times.

Picking a theme is just a starting point…

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WordPress is an open-source web application that helps people build effective blog sites.

WordPress can be used as a hosted or installed web solution. A hosted WordPress site is completely free. An installed wordpress site requires a person to buy a domain name and hosting. Installed WordPress sites can be customized, even to the point of no longer looking or functioning like a blog site.

[For more information about hosted and installed blogs, click HERE.]

This website, EnterTheNet.com is a WordPress website that has been lightly “de-blogged.” This means that the blog portion of the site – which I use to expand on workshop offerings, talk about client success stories and share cool information about internet marketing – is secondary to the main section. The blog posts are visible and easy-to-access, but they are not the main focus of the home page.

The great advantage to using WordPress as a site design tool is that, with minimal training, the website owner has complete control over adding and editing content on the site. No more having to contact your website designer every time you need to make a minor change!

WordPress sites are also extremely search engine friendly. They allow access to all the “tags” needed to make the search engines happy.

Enter The Net offers WordPress website design in a number of formats. Which one is best for you?

• Install a WordPress Blog to an existing website. We specialize in customizing the new blog portion of your site to look like your existing site. You can see some examples in our portfolio section.
• Create a blog site. This is the easiest, and least expensive way to create your site.
• Create a complete “de-blogged” WordPress site. The end result is a fantastic-looking website that no one knows is really a blog. You can edit your content easily and quickly.

Hiring Enter The Net to create a WordPress site for you ranges in price from $500 to $1500, depending on the level of customization. We typically offer SEO Services at a discount for our WordPress design clients.

Enter The Net also teaches a variety of Workshops on WordPress, including a complete Do It Yourself WordPress Workshop that includes site design, use, optimization and offsite marketing.

If you are interested in learning more about our services, please fill out the form below, or contact us at 971-570-8063.

Click HERE to learn about a course on designing your own complete WordPress website.

Below are some links and descriptions related to WordPress Blogs. The resources are listed for HOSTED and INSTALLED blogs.

HOSTED Blogs are free blogs built on the wordpress.com system.

Advantages:

• Free
• Easy to create, easy to use.
• Around 75 good themes available for use.
• Most themes allow you to add your own logo or custom header image.
• Free blogs are great to use to learn the WordPress system.
• Your blog exists in a searchable network of other blogs.
• Links from your free WordPress blog to your main website are helpful on the search engines.

HOSTED blogs use WordPress’s extensive free hosting. Most free WordPress blogs use the domain name www.[yourblogname].wordpress.com.

Links:

• WordPress.com to set up your free blog.

INSTALLED blogs are installed on your hosting service, using your domain name.

Advantages:

• Choice of themes is around 1000.
• Themes can be customized to your liking.
• Thousands of plug ins available to increase site functionality.
• Your blog exists at your domain name.
• Blog can be utilized as your whole site, or it can be installed as a separate part of your site.

Links:

• A good place to buy your domain name: GoDaddy.
• A good place to host your website and/or blog: Go Daddy.
  • This hosting service has an automatic, free WordPress installation service that is quick and easy and saves you several steps.
  • You may register your domain name and host under the same account.
• Themes: You can pick from thousands of themes by simply searching on Google for “free wordpress themes.” There are also websites that sell quality themes at a good price.
  • Official WordPress Themes Directory – around 800 themes. All have been checked for quality.
  • WPThemes Free – Excellent, colorful themes. Some have quality problems.
  • I Love You WordPress - New resource has free and priced themes.
• Plug ins allow you to add functionality to your site. I recommend only using plug ins from the official WordPress plugin directory.
  • Official WordPress Plugin Directory.

Note: WordPress 2.8 has a nifty system that allows you to search for themes and plugins and install them on your site without having to do any FTP work. You simply click “Add New” under Appearance or Plugins and you can search the official WordPress Directories, or you may upload a theme or plugin you found at another source.