I’ve written about the epic battle between Dashes (Hyphens, actually) vs. Underscores for your permalink format before, but it was an open-ended tale. This time, we have clear proof from Google itself that once upon a time underscores were shunned as a proper word separator; that is, a phrase separated by underscores such as blog_tutorials would not be parsed as two words containing blog and tutorials. But today, Matt Cutts confirms that this is no longer the case with this search engine’s algorithms.

It’s petty when you really think about it, but I’m glad that case is closed, at least in the Google fanboys’ world. We haven’t actually been following the rules for Yahoo!, MSN, or even Ask. In the SEO game run by the big G, do we ever stop to think about that?

The important thing to remember, though, is when you’ve come up with a formula for your blog’s permalinks, stick to it. Which means it’s best to change them early on, just after you’ve created your blog.

That’s not all Matt Cutts discussed, though. CNet News, Climb to the Stars, and The WordCamp Report have all listed some sound whitehat SEO and webmastering advice from the specialist. Some of these are:

• Put the name of your post before the name of your blog in the title tag.
• Put your blog in a location other than the root of your domain. And call it “blog” not “wordpress”
• It doesn’t matter if your URLs have file extensions like .php or .asp. Just don’t use .exe.
• It doesn’t matter how many slashes you have in your URLs, i.e., how deep your links are.
• Use at most 2-3 equal signs or parameters if you’re using dynamic URLs. They will be treat the same way as static URLs.
• Use permanent redirects when moving to a new blog address and ask everyone to update their links.
• Use either www or no-www, and either slash or no-slash.
• Use Google’s Webmaster Console and Analytics!
• META tags don’t matter as much.
• Protect your wp-admin folder.
• If you want to get into Google News, you should have at least multiple authors in your blog.
• “Don’t worry about the algorithm too much, focus on compelling content.”
• “If you’re buying/selling links, make sure they don’t affect search engines.”

The bad news is, HTML has a dark side: it has tags and attributes that are not very useful or meaningful (i.e., deprecated) but can still be used by the ignorant, especially since HTML is very easy to learn. But if it is not learned correctly, your blog might load more slowly or not work at all in other people’s browsers.

Warning: Do NOT try these at home!

Tacky Tags

Used by people who are trying hard to impress their visitors—but are clueless about what good web design is all about.

<marquee>

While it can have interesting uses, people looking to spice things up should not turn to this tacky replica of a stock ticker. (Horror of horrors, this blog is promoting its use!)

<blink>

Again, completely tacky and irritating to look at. If you want to put animations on your website, learn Adobe Flash (or Microsoft Silverlight).

Cosmetic Tags

Used by people who don’t want to style their sites with CSS. These tags may have been irreplaceable a few years ago, but today, there is absolutely no need to use them.

<font>

If you want to change the font style of a paragraph, you can add use the style attribute in the enclosing HTML tag, e.g., <p>:

<p style="font-family: Tahoma, Sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;">Enclosed Text</p>

(But entering rules in a separate stylesheet is the best solution.)

<s> or <strike>

You can indicate deleted text by the more meaningful <del> tag. (Hint: <ins> is the complementary tag used to insert text.)

<center>

If you want to center a paragraph, you can add use the style attribute in the enclosing HTML tag, e.g., <p>:

<p style="text-align: center;">Enclosed Text</p>

(But entering rules in a separate stylesheet is the best solution.)

The Madness Has Just Begun

There are many more deprecated HTML tags to mention, but you probably haven’t encountered them (assuming you’ve only began to see HTML code lately). The sample code above will not always apply in other situations, but they give you an idea of how to add inline CSS into your HTML. (Recommended reading: W3Schools.com CSS page)

While you think taking these extra steps (learning CSS, particularly) to eliminate use of these evil HTML tags is an inconvenience, it’s a very good investment.

Leading feed-pimping website FeedBurner is now offering its PRO services completely free. There is no catch. And people who have been signed up for PRO accounts will not be billed for June 2007 onwards.

What do you get with a FeedBurner PRO account? Two things.

Stats PRO

First is Stats PRO, with which you’ll determine:

1. Reach: how many view and click your what’s in your blog feed
2. Aggregate Item Use: how all your feed items are used
3. Single Item Use: how each of your feed items are used over time

You can activate these PRO features by choosing the Analyze tab of your selected feed, then clicking on FeedBurner Stats (PRO) under Services. Remember that you can gather statistics if (a) feed flare units are installed; or (b) you’ve installed the HTML code (which you can find at the bottom of said page) on your blog.

MyBrand

Next up is MyBrand. This service lets you use your own URL rather than FeedBurner’s own. (You need to have your own URL and control your DNS settings.) Before, people would resort to forcibly redirecting default blog feeds to their FeedBurner counterparts just so they can monitor usage and keep all feed subscribers in one place.

I personally dislike automatically redirecting feeds to FeedBurner because some blogs have sub-feeds which I might be interested in subscribing to, such as comment feeds, author feeds, and even date-specific feeds. For example, if I write at a group blog, maybe I’d want to pull only the feeds I’ve written on my own website. WordPress blogs can do that by default, but you won’t have access to them if you forward everything to FeedBurner.

I could discuss this in more detail, but MyBrand practically eliminates my need to complain!

With some DNS tinkering (some advanced knowledge is required, or you can ask help from your web host), you can set your blog feed URL something like feed.yourdomain.com/myfeed rather than feeds.feedburner.com/myfeed. You’ll get detailed instructions from FeedBurner after you sign up for the MyBrand service—just visit My Account and click on MyBrand.

Now the next question would have to be: how about my existing subscribers at the ugly FeedBurner URL? From then on you’ll have two URLs for the same feed. Since it’s just the same feed, no redirects are needed, but it’s probably wise to tweak existing ones (e.g., if you’re using FeedSmith, etc.).

If you haven’t tried out FeedBurner yet, now is the best time to do so!

If you look more closely, link trains are more like chain letters—stripped of hexes and a set number of people to send them to. But are they also hoaxes?

(Chain letters are nothing but empty threats, in case you haven’t figured it out yet!)

What is a link train?

A link train has the following parts: an operator’s manual (how the link train works), the main train (the links), and your own train (the links you’re going to add). It’s basically a list of links that grows as it from blog to blog.

Can non-blogs ride the link train?

Some trains probably allow it, but the reason link trains are popular is because they spread through blog posts. Websites that don’t update in a blog-like format probably don’t have a space for pasting memes, right? Also, the webapps mentioned above cater primarily to blogs.

Do link trains work? (Or, why do they work?)

It depends on your standards. One the one hand, link trains try to game the system (webapps and search engines) by demanding that one must keep all previous links (remember the main train?) and link back to them. (Some trains require you to also add them to your Technorati favorites, for example.)

On the other hand, it’s viral. You will want to jump on the train—whether you want to be more popular, or are just plain curious. Why?

1. Easy. The instructions are extremely simple.
2. Exciting. Imagine the rush of passing on something from blogger to blogger.
3. Encompassing. Anybody can participate.
4. Rewarding. Everybody on the train links and gets linked to you. You are helping other bloggers and they help you. (Take it to the next level by posting this Charity Link Meme!)

Hoax, Hex, or Hackery?

So, are link trains as useless as chain letters? Remember these points whenever a new link train shows up:

A link train are seen as a hoax by search engine optimization experts. Some trains aren’t SEO-friendly and the whole idea is a bit unnatural. Keep all of these in mind.

1. Are the links keyword-rich, and in line with the content of your blog? Example: Viralinks uses asterisks (*) as link text.
2. Link trains can even be considered as spam or even link farms—and can therefore be penalized by Google!
3. Most people don’t mind since they still bring traffic, but if the train grows too long, will it still work?

A link train is not a hex, but bloggers can become highly dependent on it. If you don’t wish to link to certain sites on a link train, or you don’t think it’s that effective, don’t force yourself. And be sure to update your blog with entries that are not link trains!

A link train is a good hack to discover new sites. With all the new ways of blog-surfing, do we really need another one? Yes—whether they are natural methods or not.

Link trains are much better than chain letters, that’s for sure!

Here’s how it works: we should not allow sensitive directories on our blogs to list their contents publicly. We do not want malicious visitors getting any hints on how they can compromise our websites. We should not let search engines list irrelevant folders in their results.

Hartzer wrote specifically about denying other people access to one’s WordPress plugins directory, but when you go through your site carefully, you’ll notice several more directories you might want to protect:

Folders You Might Want To Protect

Folders for your photos, music, and videos. Unless you uploaded your multimedia so that anyone can download (or hotlink to) them, it’s best to hide the directory index from other people. This can potentially save you lots of bandwidth!

Folders for your blog admin panel. If possible, avoid revealing which locations need to be hacked to get into your blog.

Folders for your blog themes. This specifically applies to bloggers who have a custom-made theme. Don’t make it devastatingly simple for copycats to clone your blog design.

How to Protect These Directories

Here are ways of protecting your important and sensitive blog folders. You can apply what you’ve learned here to other non-blog folders (if you’re running some other type of website, whether static or dynamic).

Disable directory contents from being listed. JavascriptKit explains how to hide files from being listed inside a directory using .htaccess. Check out the other pages to learn how .htaccess works and other things you can do with it.

Password-protect the directories. Michi Kono has written a tutorial on how to rename and protect the WordPress administration folder (wp-admin). You can also apply this to specific directories one by one.

Prevent searchbots and spiders from accessing those directories. Most search engines follow the rules of skipping directories and files that are listed in a robots.txt file. Here’s Google’s own robots.txt file. To make bots and spiders skip directories and files, create a text file called robots.txt and enter the following:

User-agent: *
Disallow: */feed*
Disallow: */trackback
Disallow: */wp-admin
Disallow: */wp-content
Disallow: */wp-includes
Disallow: *wp-login.php

You can add more directories you wish to hide from search engines by following the format above. Learn more about robots.txt at its own website.

The only catch is that you need access to your blog folders. But if you’ve been uploading images for your blog posts, installing plugins, and adding new themes, you probably know how already.

How many times have we lost important information just because we never make it a point to (regularly) backup? Blogging is no exception. If you value your blog and have spend lots of hours writing new posts, customizing the template, and promoting it to other people—which you probably do, since you’re here—you had better back up your blog as often as possible.

What I like about Blog Backup Day is how it wants you to start the habit by setting a definite schedule and frequency (every 13th of the month). Second, since it is an unofficial “day”, it has that warm, fuzzy feeling akin to a national holiday and other things people all over the world do at the same time.

Of course you can set your own schedule for backing up your blog. Of course you can backup more frequently than once every month. But won’t it be more fun if everyone backed up their blog all at the same time?

Ok, so this is a perfect gloom post for Friday the 13th, but you must realize that technology isn’t perfect. Your blog could go down and if you have no backup, then you’ll have to start from zero. All your hard work down the drain.

Source: The 13th – Blog Backup Day

Why the thirteenth? No special reason, really. But since it’s generally considered an unlucky number (especially if it falls on a Friday), it could serve as a reminder that if neglect your backup duties, something bad will happen—to your blog, perhaps?

Now that you have a backup schedule, there’s only one thing left to do: follow it!

The good news is, it’s not always your fault. A lot of people find the process of commenting cumbersome: having to register, leave sensitive information (such as one’s email address), and come up with an original comment.

Jakob Nielsen analyzed audience participation and published his finding in a post called Participation Inequality. According to Jakob:

• 95% of readers dont contribute
• 5% contribute from time to time
• 0.1% participate a lot

Source: ClickComments Test Blog

PostReach attempts to make it easier for casual visitors to leave feedback on your blog posts with ClickComments. Once installed on your blog, your visitors can choose to leave a “comment” by clicking on one of the icons after the post.

Each icon corresponds to a phrase that your readers can send more quickly compared to traditional commenting, e.g., “Cool Stuff”, “Inspired Me”, “Entertaining”, “Write More”, “Creative”, “Insightful”, “Touched My Heart”, “Great Find”.

Your readers can click on more than one icon. Statistics for each icon are updated almost instantly so you have a good idea of what others think of your post.

All of this happens without registration from users whatsoever. Of course the downside is not being able to tell which person clicked on what icon, but if your readers want themselves to be recognized, I think it’s better if they left a real comment.

PostReach assures us this commenting system is spam- and troll-proof. It also promises to promote blogs using ClickComments on their website (as any Web 2.0-minded company should!).

As of now, ClickComments supports Blogger, WordPress, and TypePad. Register on their website and you’ll receive instructions on how to install it. Take note that as a blog owner, you’re not required to enter your own email address either!

Visit ClickComments for more information, if at least for their really geeky video demonstration! A live example of ClickComments at work can be found on their test blog.

SixApart has just announced the release of MovableType 4 Beta. Many have known MT as the definitive blogging software that has forever changed the way people blog.

Beyond WordPress

Those who are well-versed with the history of blogging will know that the boom did not start with WordPress. The first wave came with MovableType. Few blog software were as easy to customize, and this attracted a large following.

Movable Type was once the darling of the blogosphere, especially from its original launch in 2001 to about 2004 (when licensing issues upset many bloggers). Since 2004/05, many bloggers have migrated to the open source Wordpress – and perhaps of more concern, a lot of third party developers transferred their efforts from MT to Wordpress

Source: Read/Write Web

What’s New With MT?

The latest version of MovableType will include a completely revamped user interface, improved scalability, and over 50 new features like tagging, widgets, as well as static pages and media management. It looks like SixApart wants its blog software to provide more uses than straight-up blogging, which WordPress has managed to do.

MT Goes Open Source

Perhaps the most important part of SixApart’s announcement is that an open source version of MovableType will be released at MovableType.org (under the GPL).

This is big. Being open source is one WordPress’ greatest assets and is one of the biggest reasons it gained the following that outshines MT today.

Also, most professional blogs out there—whether under a blog network or not—have taken advantage of the cost-effectiveness of WordPress. Its open source license had a lot to do with that.

MT Goes Social

MovableType serves a well-defined purpose for a well-defined market: ultra-flexible yet no-frills blogging for the expert blogger. Yet SixApart’s more social blog services, LiveJournal and Vox, provide proof that adding social (community- and relationship-oriented) features opens up new possibilities in the blogging context, aside from making it a lot more interesting and “human”. MovableType 4 will soon join this social shift:

MT4 has been re-designed and re-architected as a platform to address their needs while providing a basis to build social networking features that re-define the scope of blogging.

Source: SixApart Press Release

I’m personally curious how well these features will be put to use by the MT users/audience.

More to Come

SixApart says this announcement is just the first of several that will cover new products and services for for MT4. Shall I stay tuned? Definitely. I’m genuinely interested in how MovableType’s open source version will compete with WordPress’ own and how new developments in blog software will reshape this industry once more. Never a dull moment in blogging, it seems!

You can download the beta version of MT4 at MovableType.org.

You start getting spammed when spambots find your blog. Unfortunately, that’s the price you have to pay for being “popular.” The good news is, many developers have thought of ways to combat comment spam. Perhaps the most famous right now is Akismet, which has the following Spam Zeitgeist this very moment:

1,627,765,499 spams caught so far
10,709,505 so far today
95% of all comments are spam

Akismet is an automated way of detecting spam comments with a super-secret algorithm. reCAPTCHA is also automated, but is based on CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing-Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart), which only allows comments to be posted when a user overcomes the challenge. The challenge posed by reCAPTCHA is to type in two distorted words which are actually scanned texts from books.

The purpose of reCAPTCHA becomes two-fold: first, to combat spam on the blog where the reCAPTCHA plugin is installed (since computers are supposed to fail CAPTCHAs); and second, to convert printed words into digital ones with the help of humans (since they are better at it than computers).

People are pretty much divided on the use of CAPTCHA. Some people hate the thought of having to enter text into an additional field just to comment, some argue against its accessibility issues, while others gladly “welcome the challenge.” Although CAPTCHA in general may not be the only or perfect shield against spam, reCAPTCHA might interest you for an even nobler intent.

reCAPTCHA is available for WordPress, MediaWiki, phpBB, MovableType, Symfony, Typo3, NucleusCMS as well as in general PHP, Python, Perl, Ruby. Finally, you can also use it as a tool to hide your email address from spammers.

The key idea here is to divide your paragraphs and sentences into easily digestible chunks. Second, HTML is your friend: I’ll be mentioning several tags you can put to good use. Off we go:

Make a meaningful title, introduction, and conclusion

The title should properly summarize the whole post. Don’t hesitate to make them catchier if need be, but keep them logical and truthful. (“How to Lose Weight By Doing Nothing” should be backed up properly if you really mean it!)

Your introduction, on the other hand, should hook your reader immediately as it is also the first thing he sees. Finally, your conclusion must make your reader remember what he just read.

Divide your post into logical sections and use headers to label each one

This should come easy if you start writing your post based on a preconceived outline. Rather than using <strong>, <b>, <i>, <em> use HTML headers <h1>, <h2>, <h3>, <h4>, <h5> <h6>. The larger the number, the lower the rank. Lower-rank headings should always fall under higher-rank headings. Remember to keep your headings parallel!

Add anchors and link to them

You can make people scoot over to a section of your text using a “local link”. Just name your sections using the id attribute and link to them. For example:

<h3 id="section1">Section 1</h3>
<p>Refer to <a href="#section2">Section 2</a> for details...</p>

<h3 id="section2">Section 2</h3>
<p>As mentioned in <a href="#section1">>Section 1</a>...</p>

Use lists whenever you can

If you can simplify your paragraphs or sentences into a list of parallel ideas, use a list. For example:

Why I Don't Want To Go To School Today
<ul>
     <li>My dog ate my homework.</li>
     <li>I have a bad cold.</li>
     <li>The cafeteria food stinks.</li>
</ul>

Use <ul> for unordered lists and <ol> for ordered lists. Another type of list is the definition list, which helps you define a set of terms systematically. For example:

A Mini L33T Dictionary
<dl>
     <dt>LOL</dt>
     <dd>Laugh Out Loud</dd>
     <dt>JOO/J00</dt>
     <dd>You</dd>
     <dt>ROTFL</dt>
     <dd>Rolling On The Floor Laughing</dd>
</dl>

Add illustrations to drive the point home

You can never go wrong with adding a meaningful picture to your post. Whether it’s a pie chart, a photo, or a caricature, so long as it’s makes sense within the context of the piece, insert it! Make sure the image is in the proper place and is also readable (it shouldn’t be too small or too big for the page).

(Learn how you to find free stock photos and how to use the image tag’s attributes.)

Emphasize and distinguish important words and phrases in your text

Here are several important HTML tags that can help make your text more meaningful:

• <em> and <strong> to stress important words
• <blockquote> and <q> to quote text (<blockquote> for multiple paragraphs, <q> for inline quotes)
• <cite> to refer to the body of work (article, book, movie, website) you have quoted
• <dfn title="meaning"> to identify a term the first time it is mentioned (e.g. they call it a blog)
• <abbr title="unabbreviated text"> and <acronym title="acronym meaning"> to identify and spell out acronyms (e.g. NASA)
• <code> to distinguish computer code (<var> for variables in computer code, <samp> for output in computer code)

I seem to have mentioned a lot of HTML tags in this post. Don’t be intimidated! The easiest way to understand and feel at ease with markup is to use it more often. That, coupled with a very readable post, should keep your visitors coming back for more.