Log into your Cpanel and go to your MySQL Database for your blog. Scroll down and select phpMyAdmin.
Select the database for your wordpress blog. Go to the tables and select Overhead. You will see an Optimize Table link.
Click on it. Repeat this about 3 times. That’s it your done!

A Simpler Way

If you are not comfortable going into your phpMyAdmin then you can always use a plugin designed for this. This is wordpress right? WordPress plugins make your life a whole lot easier.

WP-DBManager plugin will take care of the task of optimizing your database for you. It Manages your WordPress database. Allows you to optimize database, repair database, backup database, restore database, delete backup database , drop/empty tables and run selected queries. Supports automatic scheduling of backing up and optimizing of database.
Download WP-DBManager plugin

If you have any questions feel free to drop me a comment.

I will share some basic information here for beginning bloggers. I will post some more articles in the future with more detailed information on Making Money from Blogging.

At this time I will simply share a few ideas that I personally use to make money from my blogs.

Google Adsense

Google Adsense is by far my favorite Blog Monetizing tool. Google Adsense allows you to place their ads on your site or blog and they will pay you a percentage of the income generated from click on the ads. NOTE TO BEGINNERS: Never click on your own ads, EVER. You will lose your Adsense account and you will not be able to get a new one.
Google Advertiser pay Google to advertise their sites. Google will show these ads on your Blog and when your visitor clicks on any of these ads Google will share the revenue. The Adsense program is easy to apply to and free.

Affiliate Marketing

Marketing Affiliate products is another method I use on many of my blogs to make money.
Affiliate marketing is very popular and easy to get started. Depending on your blog’s target audience you can find products that will appeal to your visitors and market those products on your blog. With Affiliate Marketing you sign up for the company’s affiliates program and earn a percentage of every sale that is generated via your blog. This is achieved by adding the products banners or text links to your blog with a unique affiliate ID embedded into those links. My mostly used affiliate market place is Clickbank.com.
Head on over there an learn more about promoting affiliate products.

Direct Ad Sales

Your blog space is prime real estate to advertisers. If you are getting a lot of traffic to your blog then selling direct ad space may be a great option for you. I sell ad space on a few of my blogs. I sell banner ads mainly and this is a great means of income. The process is simple once you establish the worth of your blog’s real estate. Create some appropriate ad spots and let your visitors know those spots are available for purchase. Advertisers will purchase one you have reasonable prices for the traffic you get.

Sponsored Post

You have a blog because you love to write so why not write for money. They are many advertisers that will pay you to make a post about their product and or website. You can charge bases on your readership level and this can also make good money for your blog. Sponsored post is not one of my favorites but it helps to pay the bills so I will make sponsored post sometimes. You can also join a system like sponsoredreviews.com where advertisers and bloggers go to find each other.

These are only a few methods you can use to make money on your blog. It is always good to do some testing see what work best for you. Every blog is different and some methods will work better than others depending your your blogs niche and readers base.

Have a questions about blogging? Drop me a comment.

Using a Gravatar for your blog will help you keep a consistent online image and build a relationship with your readers. The question is where do you get one and how to start using it. Well that’s easy.

Step 1.
Find that cool photo you want to sue as your Gravatar. It may be already on your computer, or you can use your digital camera or web cam to take it.

Step 2.
Go to gravatar.com. This is where you will create your Gravatar and get it ready for the world to see absolutely free. Click on sign up and create your account. NOTE; Use the email address you will be using to comment on blogs to sign up. Your Gravatar and email address go hand in hand.
You will get a confirmation link in your email. Click and respond to that link.

Step 3.
Browse and upload your image. You will have the option to crop your image.
You can drag the image to the perfect size and position you want. You can see what your Gravatar will look like.

Step 4.
Once you have the look you want, go ahead an crop that image. You will now be asked to rate your gravatar. You know what you will be using it for so select your rating.

Step 5.
Now all you have to do is associate your Gravatar with your email address. You can use different Gravatars with different emails if you want.
That’s it, you’re done.

Every time you comment on a blog using your email address you have associated with your Gravatar, it will be displayed.
Happy blogging!

WordPress is Fantastic, I love WordPress. I use it for almost all my web development projects. It is not just for blogging, WordPress can be use to built any kind of site you can imagine.

Reasons to use WordPress

1. FREE FREE FREE:
It will cost you nothing to use wordpress and all the available support software like themes and plugins.

2. Easy to Use:
You may be new to WordPress, but with a little dabbling around you will soon have the hang of it and realize it might just be the easiest Content management System you have ever seen. Easy to install and easy to use.

3. Easy to Customize:
You don’t have to be a designer to get the best looking site using running on WordPress.
Just look around online for any of the thousands of FREE (there’s that word again) WordPress Themes available. You can transform the look of your site in just minutes.

4. Functionality is the word:
What ever task you can imagine for your WordPress site their is likely to be an already existing plugin that can make it happen. If not it can be created. Best of all most plugins can me installed in just a minute and you don’t have to know programming to do it.

5. Don’t forget the Search Engines.
Wordpress is very search engine friendly right off the bat. However for those that desire some NOS under the hood, they are also plugin for that. Your Site will be as Search Engine Friendly as they come.

6. The Big Finale:
As a WordPress user you are not and never will be alone. Millions of people use wordpress for their blogs and custom developed projects all over the internet. The WordPress community is very large and they are endless resources to help you if you have a question or run into some kind of trouble. Finding a solution to your problem with be very easy and quick.

Of course they are many reasons that can be added to this list. Feel free to add your in the comments.

1. Open your ftp and login to your WordPress site via the ftp.
Navigate to your “wp-content/themes/yourthemename/images”
In this folder you should find an image file with a name similar to bg.jpg, main-bg.jpg ro something along those lines. There is really no standard as different designers will use different names for the background in their theme. You can preview the images to make sure you have the right one.

2. Find the image on your computer that you want to use as your new background. Rename the image to the same name as the current backrgound image on your site.

3. Upload the image to the image folder overwriting the current image. Once you are done your new image should be displaying on your site. You may need to refresh your homepage a few time before you see it.

That’s it, your’e done.

Need an answer to a wordpress question? Drop me a comment.

1. Your Theme:
Find a great WordPress theme, Your WordPress theme will give your blog the look you want and help identify it form others.
You can find thousands of themes online. Start at the WordPress Themes site. Find a free theme you love. You can also find free themes on other sites. Another option is getting Custom Design WordPress Theme. This will cost you a small investment but it is totally worth it as you will have a theme that no one else has. Make sure your theme is widget ready.

2. Widgets:
Your widget helps you to organize how much and what information you want to show up on your site and mainly your sidebars. Add and organize them just the way you want them. You can play around with different arrangements till you find the perfect one for you.

3. Plugins:
Plugins expand the functions of your WordPress blog and can be one of your greatest assets as a blogger. You will almost always have a new feature you wish you and on your blog and most likely their is a plugin out there that can do it. Start by searching the WordPress Plugins Site.

4. About Page:
An about page is very important to you readers. Add your about page and give your readers some information about you and or your company if applicable. This will great increase your online presence.

5. Contact:
Add a contact page with the information you want people to contact you with. If you don’t want your email address to be public you can install a contact form plugin. Your users will use the form to contact you. See how useful wordpress plugins can be?

You have the basics down now start posting on your blog.

Have a WordPress Question? Drop me a comment.

I will assume you know how to upload an image to your server.
So go ahead and upload that new header image to your themes image folder. For you new to wordpress that will be found in “wp-content/themes/yourtheme/images”.

Your image is upload now you must edit your themes style.css file.
This is where you will be able to edit your header image in most themes. Some themes you will have to dig deeper for the right file.
We are going to edit this file directly from the wordpress admin area.
In your admin under Appearance select Editor. One the Editor page your style sheet should be already opened but if for some reason it is not. Look to the right menu and select style.css

I recommend you click the coded area and select all then copy and paste this code into a text document and save it. If anything goes wrong you can open that document and copy the original back into the file in your admin to set things back to normal.

In the coded area locate the text that looks similar to this,

background-image: url(‘images/Header.jpg’);

Some minor variations will be in different themes but once you see it you will most likely recognize it.
Here the header image is named Header.jpg and found in the images folder of your theme. As you have already uploaded the image you want to use just replace the Header.jpg with your new image and click Update File.
That’s it, go to your home page and your theme should now display your new header image. Some time you may need to refresh your page a few times or close your browser and reopen to view the change you made.

Most people that want to start a blog may already have an idea of what they want to write about.
Some want to make an income online and know blogging can help do that but are not sure where to start.

I will tell you what I do personally and what all professional bloggers will tell you.

Be Passionate:
Write about something you love and are very passionate about. It never fails.

Blogging is not just putting a site online and sending traffic to it with hopes of making some money.
When blogging you have a responsibility to your readers. They are interested in what you are taking about and expect good content when they read your post.

If you write about something you are passionate about your readers will feel your love for the subject and enjoy your reading more. They will come back often, tell their friends and share your post. That’s why you want to write, right?

For Love or Money?:
One thing to keep in mind is the main reason you are blogging. Are you more about the income or just entertaining your readers. Maybe you have a lot to say on your interest and just want to get it out.
If it is about the money then they are a few more things to consider.

Is there a demand for the information you will be providing?
Can you compete with the competition?
Is it already a popular topic with many blogger already writing about it?

These are thing to consider as you will have to go up against the many thousands of pro bloggers already out there.
I won’t dare say it can’t be done. Many succeed at doing something everybody is doing but with their own twist.

Always keep in mind that they are millions of people online and you can have your own following. There is more than enough room online for you.
However selecting a Niche that is not that popular can also be very rewarding as you can benefit greatly from the lack of competition.

Choose Your Topic:
Think about it, weigh the pros and con of your desired topic. Make a decision and start writing.
Many pro bloggers may not agree on this one but at the end of the day I believe that you can only continue to produce great content from a topic you are passionate about rather than one you are just choosing for commercial reasons. Content is King.
Start writing the road to your dreams.

You installed your new blog. You have a theme you like. What now?
Here is a list of thing you can do right after setting up your blog. This will help you get your online presence established quickly and easily.

1. About Page:
Add and About Page. This is very Important as it tell your visitors about you and or your company. People like to know who or what they are dealing with. Don’t skip this step.

2. Blog Categories:
Add your Blog Categories. Maybe you are doing this for the first time and you are not sure of all the categories you will use as yet. No problem, give it some thought. Based on your blog’s niche, add some categories that you think will fall under your niche. You can always edit them later.

3. Seach Engine Optimization:
It is not as hard as it sounds. Remember your are using WordPress so there is a plugin for that. My SEO plugin of choice is Platinum SEO Pack Just login your admin, go to Plugin/Add New and type in Platinum SEO Pack. Install directly from your admin area without having to download it to your computer.
Visit the plugins options and insert the information to make your blog ready for the search engines.

4. Custom Permalinks:
Another simple step to make your blog search engine friendly and your links easy to remember for your readers. For you new to this, your blog automatically set the links to your post in a sturcture like this

http://www.blogcustomizer.com/?p=123

Not very search engine friendly. Go to your setting/permalinks tab. Select Custom Structure and add this

/%postname%

to the box.
This will give your blog post a nice clean link.

5. Set up a Feed:
Blog and Feeds are like horse and carriage. Add a button to your site so that your visitors can subscribe to your feed. To go further you should also set up a Feed Burner account at feedburner.com. Burn your feed and redirect your feed to the new url you will get from Feed Burner. To help you redirect your feed you should download and install the FeedBurner FeedSmith Plugin.

6. Contact Page:
If you want your readers to contact you then a contact page is a must. You can add a page with simple contact instruction or you can use a plugin and add a contact form for your readers to use. I personally use Contact Form 7. They are many more so you can use any one you wish.

7. Content:
The reason you wanted a blog was to write so what on earth are you waiting for? Write, Write, Write.

They are a lot more things you can do to fully optimize your blog to maximize your web presence. I will be sure to add more detailed post about some of the things I mentioned in this one and add more things you can do later. For now, if you are new to blogging, this is where you can start.

They are many options to choose form if you want a SEO plugin for wordpress. I personally use Platinum SEO Pack.
In my humble opinion it is the best there is. With some of the best and most functional features this plugin does a fantastic job at helping you make your WordPress Blog Search Engine friendly. I see raves around the internet about All in one SEO Pack but Platinum SEO Pack has options that are not available in All in one SEO Pack. (Well at the time of writing this post, maybe they udpated by now.)

Some of it’s Platinum SEO Pack Features

* Automatic 301 redirects for any permalink changes
* Canonical URLs
* Optimized Post and Page Titles for search engines
* Generates all SEO relevant META tags automatically
* Option to specify meta description and meta keywords tag for categories and tag pages.
* Option to turn off Page title or Post title rewrites for any particular post or page
* Helps you avoid duplicate content
* Lets you override any title and set any META description and META keywords, for any post or page
* Compatible with most other plugins, like Auto Meta, Ultimate Tag Warrior and others.However you may have to disable All in One SEO pack
* You don’t have to fear changing permalinks. If you are not satisfied with the current permalink, change it through Settings’>Permalinks in your admin panel, without worrying about loss of Page rank or google penalty. Platinum SEO plugin will take care of issuing a 301 redirect to the new location. This is a new essential feature, not present in All in one SEO
* Add index, noindex, follow or nofollow, noodp, noydir, noarchive, nosnippet meta tags to any post/page.

Getting the best result form your SEO plugin still depends a bit on you. You have to use the right keyword, description and combination of options but Platinum SEO Pack is a great place to start?

What is your favorite SEO Plugin?