The MattChevy.com blog isn’t so much of a blog as it is a free resource of information to individuals and businesses. My goal is to take the questions you have (and even some you dont) and provide you with specific and concise how-to “lessons” in both video & written format.
Anything related to WordPress, blogging, HTML & CSS, hosting, SEO, Thesis, etc – is fair game. To get things started, I want you to leave questions and SPECIFIC things you want to learn in the comments below. Ask one, ask ten – just ask away and I promise I’ll get to them – and if it’s something I don’t know, I’ll find someone who does and will get the answer published here.
Example Tutorials:
- How to access your FTP information
- How to set up automatic thumbnail resize in Thesis Theme
- Post Teaser display formatting & layout in Thesis Theme
- How to assign “roles” to users in WordPress (and what privileges each user has)
- How to set “Goals” in Google Analytics
- Time management strategies for bloggers
- How to import/export your WordPress content
Now it’s your turn – sound off with your questions below – and I promise I’ll get them answered ASAP. Help me. Help you. Help everyone.
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{ 23 comments… read them below or add one }
Hey Matt
Keywords are a bit of a mystery to me … I understand the concept, but how do I go about choosing good keywords for my posts?
Cheers
Jen
@Jen,
Here’s some intriguing insight to keywords in Google’s ranking.
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2009/09/google-does-not-use-keywords-meta-tag.html
Hi Jen – thanks for sharing the link Josh. I’ll do a few tutorials on Google Keyword research tools in the near future. Thanks for the comment!
Awesome, thanks Josh and Matt!
Hi Matt,
What host do you recommend for Wordpress powered sites? Looking for relatively affordable, of course, but great features and ease of transfer and maintenance.
And yes, how do you import/export wordpress content?
Thanks!
I’ll answer number one for you here: I recommend Bluehost to all of my clients – for two reasons: 1) Ease of use and control panel navigation and 2) Solid customer service available 24/7 including Live Chat. If you’re considering your options, that’s the direction I’d point you in.
As for the import/export question, I’ll be sure to do a video tutorial on that shortly. Check back soon!
Solid customer support? They weren’t able (or willing) to do squat when you got hacked. I’d hardly call that solid.
Who would you recommend? HostGator? I don’t know where the problem was rooted when I got hacked – or if the host could have done anything. For the sake of everyone’s benefit – and because you have more experience dealing with hosts than I, who would you recommend, and why?
Well, the fact that BlueHost wasn’t even willing to do anything (cleanup or othewise) is a pretty big negative in my experience. Honestly, I’ve never seen a host that wasn’t willing to do that (or at least offer). Since I stopped using my own hosting (server in my office), I’ve used HostGator exclusively for my own projects, and I’ve got nothing but good things to say about them. That being said, here’s a short list of those I’ve had direct experience working with:
Good
HostGator
DreamHost
MediaTemple
Bad
GoDaddy (nothing about their advertising, just a pain to work with anything back-end related and expensive for what you get.)
FatCow (limited options to .htaccess, and has always seemed very slow.)
Rackspace (overkill for most people, and somewhat pricey.)
Thanks for the input Andrew. It was an odd situation with the whole hack-job. HostGator has been great (have worked with several clients who use it) and I agree with your analysis of FatCow – it is INCREDIBLY slow.
Cool idea! I have the Thesis theme. I have it installed and am using it, but know that I am not using it to its full potential – at least I don’t think I am beause I am simply posting the same way I did before with a different theme. I’d love a tutorial with a few tips about how to really get the most out of it!
I could do a ton of ins and outs of Thesis (it’s my weapon of choice when it comes to design). Do you have any specific things you’d like to learn more about?
To start, I think I’d like to know how I could best optimize my SEO using Thesis. I’m sure this would most likely include basic SEO tips which I could definitely use as well! Thanks for offering to do this!
Sure thing Monica – happy to do a “Thesis-SEO-101″ post. Thanks for the question, keep a look out for a follow up soon. And if you have any other questions, feel free to email me – matt (at) mattchevy (dot) com.
Hi Matt,
I would really like to see a “getting started” post. I have recently bought my domain name and honestly don’t know what to do next!
Thanks so much.
Sarah
Have you set up hosting? Are you using Wordpress? Give me a little background on what you’re needing help with – I’d be more than happy to share some advice.
This is an awesome offering!
How do you get the big buttons on your site for twitter, facebook and rss?
Also, what is the code for a “connect with me” box at the end of each post … to tweet or sign up for email updates?
I just bought Thesis … what would happen if I took my current blog and changed it to Thesis? Would it screw everything up? Its semi-customized…
Thanks again!
Good questions here Melissa. I’ll do a post on adding social media widgets to your blog. Good stuff.
As for your point on switching to Thesis – by changing themes you are going to throw some things off for a bit, yes – but it’s nothing you can’t fix (easily). If you make the switch and get any weird side-effects, let me know, I’m happy to come in and lend a hand in “cleaning house” a bit.
Thanks for the comment!
Can’t wait to read the widgets post.
I will see if the switch goes beyond my realm of “lemme try to fix it” and keep you posted. You rock for offering to help.
Cheers!
In order of importance:
How to access your FTP information; is this how I change my CSS and HTML?
How to make a “cool” font for your blog title and tag line
How to make a favicon
Resources for making a logo
I have all in one seo installed, but my blog description doesn’t show up in google yet
Getting the most out of google analytics
I’m using Wordpress Atahualpa Theme, Dream Host
Good stuff Cameron. I’ll touch on all of these points in future posts. Cheers!
How to backup our blog so we can avoid a similar attack LWP experienced
How to custom your side bar with text/color/design
Thats it for now
Awesome man – will be sure to touch on these things. Thanks for the comment.