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So I’ve realized that one of the biggest challenges for people with Wordpress is a lot of the technical side of what needs to be done to make sure your site is optimized. I’m sure that sounds somewhat obvious to many people, but if you’re just getting started out with Wordpress, or you’ve managed to get your blog/site set up- you may be in the “what now?” stage. It’s quite possible you’re ready to self host your site too. Either way, as someone who wasn’t very technical until this past year, I can completely understand the frustration or challenges you may be having.

One of the most important pieces to having a website or blog is that people need to know you’re there- and you need to know how they found you. Google has some great free resources to help you get started as well as take your site to the next level- whatever that may be for you.

The first thing to do is to sign up for an account with Google. It’s totally free and there are a ton of resources that will walk you through what you need to do. I’ll also have some videos posted here in the next week or so that walk you through different tasks. But first, get signed up with Google. There are lots of things you can add to your account, but for now you should just start with Google Analytics and Google sitemap (I’d recommend a gmail account too). Once you’ve set up your account you need to download both the analytics plugin and the xml sitemap generator plugin for wordpress. You can find them here:

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-analytics-for-wordpress/

http://www.arnebrachhold.de/projects/wordpress-plugins/google-xml-sitemaps-generator/

If you need help uploading these, drop me a line and I can help you get them installed. Just make sure you’ve signed up with Google too!

So I downloaded the plugin podpress and have not been able to get it to work correctly! I purchased this really cool skin too that makes the player look like an actual iPod (although I just recently got the iPod touch and think I’m in love…..literally considering getting the iPhone….I digress). There was a potential fix in the index.php file, but it didn’t seem to work. I downloaded another plugin, but then of course had some issues w/my ftp software (or host?) and wasn’t able to get it onto the site either (not this site). After I complete a few other projects I’m working on in the next couple of days, I’m going to revisit the podcast issue and get it resolved. I’m such a visual person and am SO determined to get the podcast player working. We’ll see what happens. If anyone has any suggestions or recommendations, please feel free to leave a comment. I’m also considering just waiting until Wordpress 2.7 comes out. We’ll see.

So I started playing with Joomla today…..I still love Wordpress, but Joomla is pretty great too! What to do? I have also been working with another site builder, but have also found Joomla to be much easier than the other site builder I have been using. The way I’ve been describing the difference between the two (other than the many OBVIOUS differences), is that Wordpress is a CMS that is tailored more to blogs, but can be used as a website and Joomlas is a CMS that is tailored more to websites, but can be used as a blog. I know this is a very simplistic explanation, and it may get a little deeper as my knowledge of both platforms increases- but for now, it’ll do.

I’m certainly not abandoning Wordpress for Joomla ( I do love Wordpress)- but I think I’ll choose whichever platform seems to work better for the particular site I’m working on. I’m just about finished with my first Joomla site, and will post the link here in the next few days. In the meantime, you can check out my other chick blog at http://www.theselfhelpchick.com.