Basic Tips to know before Starting a WordPress Blog

WordPress is a well-known platform for Blogging and it is being used by millions of webmasters and bloggers. It is a self-hosted blogging platform.This site is hosted on Blogger.com but, there are hundreds of other popular blogs which are hosted on WordPress. So therefore, WordPress can’t be ignored for Blogging. It is also called WP in short words by webmasters. It is a CMS (content management System) which provides you the opportunity to set up your blog easily. And it is totally developed in PHP, a popular web programming language. In this post I will give you some basic tips before establishing a blog with WP. My tips will be for securing WP, optimizing WP and designing WP. But before going straight to my tips I would like to give you some information about WordPress features and benefits.

What are the Advantages of WP?

If you choose WordPress for your Blog you will benefit from the many features WP provides. There are tons of free and premium plug-ins, Themes you can use to design and optimize your blog. WP blogs have professional themes and frameworks. The installation of WordPress is also easy and can be done in minutes. There are many companies and individuals who make WP themes and plug-ins for WordPress users. Also, WordPress is SEO friendly by default.

Disadvantages of WP

There aren't many disadvantages, but in my opinion; WordPress is a web development environment with complex coding of PHP. And that’s a big problem for newbies, because new bloggers can’t customize WP themes or templates easily. While blogger is a platform where even an absolute beginner can easily manage/design their blog. But without having sufficient knowledge of PHP you can’t do anything complex. The security for WP blogs is also an issue for newbies, because WP blogs are hacked most often if they are not well secured. These are some issues which can be handled by learning the basics of WordPress and here now I am going to share my tips with you.

Tip # 1. Change User Name & Password

The very first thing to do for WordPress security is to change the default Admin details. You can change your default user name & password by going to users page on your WP dashboard. You must change the default user name and password in order to secure your blog from being hacked. While installing WP script from your cPanel you’re given a default user name and password. So your first step is to change it with a strong one. You can select a strong password by using a combination of different characters like this one: [myname123is!^*(#] and it is necessary for security reasons. Also, change the default user name to a better one.

Tip # 2. Change the Registration Status

If you go to your WP dashboard and click the general option under the setting tab; you will find a check box saying “Any one can register” which is already checked by default. At the beginning of your blog you need to uncheck it. Because someone can register to your blog and can harm you. Later on, you can once again check it and assign a role to the new members. Never assign the Administrator role to new members. Always assign a subscriber or contributor role to new members. This way, you will only be the Administrator of your blog.

Tip # 3. Allow Search Engines to Index Your Site

In your WP Dashboard there is a link called “Privacy” under the setting tab, click that and check if the radio button is selected or not which says “Allow Search engines to index this site” if not then instantly select that and save the setting. This way, Search engines will follow your blog and will index it.

Tip # 4. General & Reading setting

This is very easy step, when you get your blog’s dashboard. Visit General Option under the setting tab and make the necessary setting. In site title insert your Blog title which shouldn’t be more than 3 or 4 words. In Tagline, just insert a little bit description about your site. WordPress Address URL and Site Address URL are same, leave them as default. Put your email in Email box and make the date and time setting according to your country/region.

Next go to the reading setting. If you want to show your latest posts on home page then do nothing. But if you want to show static page on your blog’s main page then select the radio button “A static page”. Also you can select the number of posts you want to show on your blog’s home page; there will be 10 posts by default and you can select minimum or maximum posts to show on main page.

Tip # 5. Important Plug-ins that you must install

In order to set up your blog successfully on WordPress you must consider installing some free plug-ins that are exist in WordPress library itself. I will give you a list of plug-ins which are about securing your blog, optimizing your blog and socializing your blog. In order to install a plugin; just click on the plugin link located at left side of your WP dashboard and search the plugin you want to install.

Plugins that secure your blog

Akismet

Akismet is a plug-in that protects your blog from spam comments and track back spam. It is 99% effective. It detects the bad comments and saves your time.

AntiVirus

AntiVirus plugin is a smart security solution for your blog which saves your blog from different malicious attacks and spam injections.

AskApache Password Protect

AskApache is an advance security plugin which blocks the attacks on your password & Installation.

Login LockDown

This plugin blocks an IP address from a given range and blocks the hacking attempts on your WP admin.

Replace WP-Version

Hackers mostly attack by knowing your WP version, if you hide WP version then your blog will be more secure. Replace WP-version hide your WP-Version from all.
Secure WordPress

It checks all the basic security measurements of your blog.

Semisecure Login Re imagined

Sometimes your WP blog get hacked when hacker gets your password, so this plugin encrypts your password when you login to your WP admin.

WordPress File Monitor

This is also a very good plugin which informs you by email that what happened to your blog. If someone deletes something or adds something to your, it will instantly inform you. Even if your blog got hacked it will inform you about the activity.

Optimization Plugins

All SEO in one Pack

This is the most used plugin on WordPress. By installing this plugin you can write Meta title tags, meta description tags and meta keywords separately for Search engines. It is very useful plugin for SEO.

Google XML Sitemap

This is another important plugin. This plugin generates your sitemap for Google. You will just have to add this sitemap once to your Google webmaster account. It will refresh your sitemap whenever new content will be added to your blog. And will inform Google crawler.

SEO plugin by Yoast

This is another great plugin for WordPress SEO, it is also all in one and can perform better than All in One SEO pack it used perfectly.

Social Plugins

Better Related Content

This plugin is very simple and lovable. It shows the most relevant content below every post when they are viewed by visitors.

WordPress Social Ring

This is an awesome plugin which shows the social sharing buttons below every post of your blog. In some templates, it can also be added to home page.

WP Email-to-Facebook plugin

This plugin sends your recently added post to your Facebook fan page or profile wall.
YD Recent Posts with thumbnails
I like this plugin and recommended to use. This plugin shows your most popular blog posts image thumbnails; same like Blogger blogs popular posts. It will add attractiveness to your WP blog.
What do you think?
These were just some basic tips from my own experience. You may be having different experience with WordPress. Please share your thoughts in comment section.

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Apple's iPhone 5 vs Samsung's Galaxy S3

 
Matt Warman says that while the new iPhone 5 offers improvements over its predecessor, "by common consensus" rival mobile manufacturers like Samsung and HTC are offering phones almost as good as, or better according to some, than the Apple device.

Comparing the Samsung Galaxy S3 with the iPhone 5, the most obvious difference at first glance is the iPhone's smaller screen, and its solid-feeling glass and metal feel in contrast with the Galaxy S3's heavier use of plastic in its construction.

But the real distinctions lie in the software, which illustrates the "fundamental difference of approach" between Samsung and Apple.

Whereas the iPhone 5 requires users to go into their apps to use them, the Galaxy S3 has more "widgets" directly on the home screen, allowing owners to access tools like Google Plus, the built-in torch as well as their own email inbox. It also offers NFC technology, allowing people to send digital data to other smartphones via Android Beam.

Apple has taken the view that it is best to refine and improve the traditional features and functions of the iPhone.

"The Apple argument is if you can't easily use this stuff it's not worth having. Android at the moment has new features that Apple doesn't offer- but new features that are sometimes still harder to use. Apple at the moment is focussing on usability", says The Telegraph's Consumer Technology Editor.

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Samsung Galaxy Note II review

When Samsung launched the original Galaxy Note last year, it was the most powerful phone on the market but it was also criticised for being either too big to be a phone or too small to be a tablet, and its ‘S Pen’ stylus wasn’t as easy to use as the standard pen or pencil that it was touted as a replacement for.

It went on, nonetheless, to sell more than 10million units. My own initially negative feelings were soon banished after I spent more time with it and saw others excited about its possibilities. The screen was good, it was fast for web browsing, gaming and watching movies or TV. The Note became a useful travelling companion because it fits easily on even the smallest train or plane table, but is more than big enough for what most people need.

Now, however, the new Note II has been launched. Its screen is extraordinary – the new HD Super Amoled 5.5” display is more compelling than ever, its 1.6MHz quad-core processor is faster than ever, the battery lasts longer and the S Pen has been updated to provide huge improvements over its predecessor. Although it’s just 0.7” larger than the Galaxy S3 mobile phone, the device feels very different. It's totally unlike anything else on the market.


So while the Note II is merely an iterative improvement over its predecessor it feels far more fully formed. This is a device that now recognises my handwriting fast enough to be usable, and allows me to annotate pictures or web pages with the ease that the original Note lacked. While a return to the stylus felt like a retrograde step, now Samsung have added ‘Air View’ a feature that allows you to see previews of, say, emails or calendar appointments if you hover the S Pen over an item, or pop out a video and keep it on screen while you’re doing something else. It makes a real difference and largely works very well. While I struggled to make the S Pen gestures work consistently – often the device interpreted the line that’s supposed to introduce a space as a hyphen – even these too are broadly helpful.


Samsung, too, have made the S Pen more fully integrated – simply pull it out and up pops a new, blank note, for instance. All of these factors combine to make the Note look lovely, and feel even better to use. The Note deserves to sell many more than its popular processor, in part down to Samsung's own decent software.

If there are faults, they feel like very subjective quibbles – it is still too big for most people to want to use it as a phone, but that’s unlikely to surprise prospective purchasers. It’s not a total replacement for pen and paper but it’s good enough for using on the go if you need to, and the new feature that lets you add a note on the ‘back’ of a digital photograph is genius.

It’s also really too big to be used one handed, even in ‘One handed mode’ where the keyboard sits to one side. But how often do you have to use a device such as this one handed? The camera isn’t perfect, but the searing power of the device more than makes up for that with its high speed web browsing. I couldn’t find an app that made it remotely struggle, and it has a battery life that is plenty for most transatlantic flights.

On 4G, it will offer an overall experience as yet unprecedented in the UK. With the added bonus of Android Jelly Bean and Google Now, it’s hard to find any reason not to recommend the Galaxy Note. At around £30 per month, or roughly £500 unlocked, it’s not bad value either – for that money you're getting an extraordinary phone and a stunning tablet.

Specifications:

Screen size: 5.5"
CPU: 1.6GHz, quad core, ARM Cortex A9
Screen resolution: 720 x 1280
Height: 151.1mm
Width: 80.5mm
Depth: 9.4 mm
Weight: 180g
Memory slot: MicroSD up to 32GB
Camera: 8mp
Front facing camera: 1.9mp
Video camera: 1080p
Camera flash: 1 x LED
Bluetooth v4.0; FM Radio; WiFi; GPS; 4G

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