According to Facebook this new feature shows interactions with the Page over the last 7 days – anything from likes, to comments on wall posts to photo uploads.

I find this an interesting one as I feel it could have a number of effects on the way in which people start to use Pages and make judgements. If no-one is currently talking about a Page, will people be inclined to ‘like’ it?

On the flip side of the coin could this could encourage administrators to start over-sharing to try and push figures?

If you have any opinions on the new feature, please leave a comment below and we can start a discussion!

With the inventions of Twitter, Tumblr, Blogger etc etc starting up a blog has literally become a case of making a few clicks and filling in a username and password – that’s the easy bit!

Arguably, The hardest bit is settling on a topic to write about, and this is something that freaks a lot of people out and puts them off blogging all together! boo!

From my many years of  experience, I can share some helpful advice on choosing a good topic to write or ‘blog’ about:

Blog on something you know

First rule, you’ll find it easy to blog about things you know a lot about. What’s more you probably under estimate your own knowledge. Remember that things you have spent years learning about, people all around the World will be picking up today, so they want all the knowledge and wisdom you can throw at them.

Blog on something you love

Passion makes for the very best blogs, so make sure the topic that you choose is something that you really want to spend a lot of time writing about.

Think of something you would happily write about daily and be happy not to get paid for…they are the sort of topics you will find, ironically, become your most popular blogs, and best money makers.

Blog on a topic with a long life-span

Remember a blog is about content, content and even more content…add a side order of content with that too. Your topic needs to be something you can constantly write about, and constantly make interesting content around. Its non-stop!

These three points should really help you to hone down on a topic that will make a good blog. One final tip – forget worrying about how obscure your topic is too…remember when you hit ‘publish’ you are broadcasting to the World.

There are always bound to be others interested in the same topics as you.

Good luck and if you have any more useful tips for choosing a blog topic, please leave a comment below!

Here are some top tips to stop this awful process from happening.

1. Make a Strong password

Make sure that the administrator profile has a very very very strong password. I make it so hard, I can’t even remember it myself and then just make a note of it in a file on my desktop.

It sounds annoying but this really is one of the most important things you can do to help prevent being hacked. If you are struggling to think of one use try using this handy tool.

2. Hide your plugins

Showing your plugins to hackers is an easy way for them to exploit vulnerabilities. This is usually covered in the newer versions of WordPress but its best to check yours. Visit your ‘plugins’ directory using your favorite FTP client, and drop in a completely black index.html file.

This hides everything in the folder from the public and all they see is a white screen. To check this go to yoursite.com/wp-content/plugins. If you see a blank white screen you’re covered.

3. Delete Admin  / Don’t use it as a log in name

New WordPress versions give you the option to choose your login name now, you used to have to have ‘Admin’ which is terrible as its really easy for hackers to guess. Choose something that is not at all related to your site, but at the same time memorable so you don’t keep forgetting.

If you’ve already installed WordPress, simply make a new user and call it something other than the obvious ‘admin/administrator/webmaster’ etc and give it all the admin privileges. Log out then Log back in with the new user name and then delete the admin account all together.

4. Change your display name

Make sure that you aren’t displaying your login name anywhere on your website. This is most likely to be appearing under your post titles i.e ‘this post was written by xxxx.’ Change this to something other than your login name as this gives hackers a huge advantage. To do this go to  Users > Your profile.

Type in a nickname that is different from your login name and choose ‘display name publicly as’ and select accordingly. Alternatively if you know your way around the code just remove the line of code that prints out your name in the loop files.

5. Stay up to date

WordPress release updates for many reasons, one being to patch up security holes they have found. Make sure that if your dashboard is telling you to update that you do so as soon as possible. There is no excuse now with the ‘in-admin’ update feature.

That’s all for now. If you have any of your own please share them below and help us all to have stronger WordPress installations.

However you may have recently signed in to your dashboard to find that suddenly no-one is commenting any more? Was it something you said? Well maybe, or it could be something you did.

Here are a few tips that should help to get the comment section of your site booming again…and make you feel a bit better about yourself!

1. Self Analise – would you comment?

The best place to start with something like this is to really take a close look at your posts, and treat them as if you were visiting your own website for the first time.

Are you compelled to leave a comment? If you feel that the content doesn’t make you want to comment your readers probably feel the same. Spice things up a bit by adding a few puns, or images. Make your posts a feast for your readers.

2. Ask a question

Ask a question…and you (hopefully) get some answers. I try to ask a question at the bottom of all my blog posts in the hope that readers will be inspired to share their answers.

3. Ask people to comment

A lazy tactic is to literally ask people to leave a comment. You can use your other social platforms like Facebook and Twitter to get readers to go through to your blog and comment on something by using something like ‘hey everyone please go and leave your thoughts on my latest blog post.’ I’ve found this can work from time to time.

4. Check accessibility

Is it actually possible for your readers to leave a comment? Sometimes we get lost in the dashboard and forget we have a ‘front of house.’ If your comments have suddenly dried up its worth checking everything is still working ok. Sounds stupid but I’ve had this problem before because I was fiddling with source code and actually broke the comment facility.

5. Make it easy

Make sure commenting on your blog is easy. You want to minimise the comment making process. If you post your entries to a popular Facebook group why not use a Facebook Comment plugin for your blog? It means that your readers don’t have to fill out any forms and can leave their thoughts almost instantly.

6. Play dumb – leave stuff out

A tactic I’ve heard that other bloggers occasionally use, its to purposefully leave out a few obvious bits of information in posts in order to get people to comment. The idea being that you’re readers will want to ‘fill the blanks’ so to speak.

Be careful with this one. Remember the foundation of good blogging is quality content, so use this tactic wisely. If you aren’t sure don’t try it.

7. Reply to all comments

This is a definite must! Make sure you reply to as many comments as you can. This really boosts your community because your readers know they aren’t speaking to a brick wall.

Your readers want to engage with you so make sure you always reply, even if its just to say ‘thanks for the comment.’

8. Comment on other blogs

Commenting on other blogs is a great way to get comments on your blogs too. Often people that actually take the time to read a comment on another site will be likely to want to leave them elsewhere as well.

9. Create great content

Great content attracts traffic, and a lot of traffic means that the likelihood of getting comments is greatly increased. Publishing great content should be at the core of every blog. What is a blog without it?

10. Offer and incentive

I’ve run competitions on my blogs in the past where readers have to enter by posting a comment on a certain post. It proved very succesful and as a result (for reasons I may not really be able to explain) there was a definite boost to the community across the whole site.

11. Post a ‘ice-breaker’ comment

Sometimes it just takes one person to break the ice, and the comments start rolling in. I’ve accidentally left comments as a guest on my own blogs on occasions, but I’ve found that it seems to break the silence, and ofter encourages more to speak out too.

12. Its not the end of the world

If all the above fails, remember that the comment area of your website is not the most important aspect. I’ve had many blog successfully draw in hundreds of hits per day, with not a single comment in sight, so don’t get too negative! Concentrate on good origional content and then comments will come.

How many of these tips will you be putting in to practice? Leave a comment below and let me my community know!

I hope that this will be a place where I can keep you all updated with my latest projects that I’m working on and offer some insight in to working as a freelancer at the same time.

I also hope to use this as a place to share web design, SEO and WordPress tips.

While you are here, why not leave a comment and say hello…?

Thanks

Tom