"David," you say, "My blog is lackluster. It’s bloated with plug-ins and slow to respond. I need to whip it into shape, and set it to work making money for me."
"Sounds like you need me to Pimp your Blog," I reply. And here’s how I’ll go about it…
First, if your blog’s slumming, I’ll move it out of that trailer-park hosting service into some High-Class Diggs. A change of location can do a blog some good and may even end up saving you cash!
Then, the basics. Let’s update your press kit: set up the static pages of your blog to tell your story, shout your accolades, and sell your products and services.
Next, a look-and-feel make over. I’ll install that free theme you’ve had your eye on or, if you’ve told me, "Just do something with it, will ya?" I’ll install one of my current favorites: One of SoloStream’s premium themes, or one of the Revolution Magazine variations, or your favorite shade of Essence, or WPRemix, the do-everything theme.
The webmaster tools will make sure Google stops by on a regular basis. And some analytics code will let us know when fans stop by.
Now, let’s add some BLING: an image here, some color there.
Time to pop the hood for a plug-in tune up. Remove the plug-ins that are redundant and the ones not being used. Upgrade those that are out-of-date. Fine-tuning to take your blog to a scorching 0-6 second load time. Meet my A-List: AskIMet, All in One SEO Pack, Contact Form 7, DoFollow, FeedBurner FeedSmith, Google XML Sitemaps, Share This, Subscribe to Comments, Technocrati Tags, Wordpress Automatic Upgrade, WordPress Database Backup, WordPress Mobile Edition, and WP Super Cache.
Now to put your blog to work: Install Google Adwords, a PayPal donate button, Affiliate badges… Add code to build a list–the money’s in the list, you know (you supply the list service).
At long last, it’s time to show it off. Get the word out. Tell the press. Tell your friends. Socialize. Network. You’ll get access to My Top-Secret Rolodex and my personal Bag of Tricks… only available to friends, clients, and a few select fans.
Interested?
Hire me to Pimp your Blog 
Virtually yours,
David Burch
"Your GO-TO Guy"
PS. Don’t want the entire package? Want to pick and choose? Hire me at my hourly rate, plus the cost of materials, for a truly custom job. You’ll be surprised at what I can do in an hour.
jiIiI
WordPress Plugins
Name a website content management system, I’ve used it. One of the reasons to use WordPress is because of the large amount of plugins that are available. WordPress plugins are very important to the functionality of a WordPress website. Here’s my current top-ten WordPress plugins, the ones I install, first thing on every WordPress site that I build.
Google Sitemap Generator
Google Sitemap Generator creates a google sitemap: an XML sitemap format now used by the top three search engines (Google, MSN, and Yahoo!). The Google Sitemap Generator allows me to configure it like I want it. I can choose which articles on my site receive prominent placement in the sitemap. Available from http://www.arnebrachhold.de/projects/wordpress-plugins/google-xml-sitemaps-generator/.
SEO Title Tag
The SEO Title Tag plugin allows you to have one title for human readers and one title for search engine robots. Humans prefer short, witty titles that catch their eyes and tickle their brains. Search engine robots enjoy tasty morsels of keywords. Use the SEO Title Tag to keep both of them happy. Most people use SEO Title Tag to put the post headline in the HTML title tag, instead of the blog name. Available from http://www.netconcepts.com/seo-title-tag-plugin/.
Sociable
The Sociable plugin allows site visitors to easily bookmark and share the link to a post using popular social networks like digg, reddit, etc. Available from http://push.cx/sociable/. My only reservation is that the download size is huge.
Feedburner Feedsmith
This plugin will detect all paths to your RSS feed and forward the subscription feed to feedburner for ease of tracking.
Contact Form 7
The Contact Form 7 plugin greatly simplifies the creation of multiple contact forms, without touching the code. Available from http://ideasilo.wordpress.com/2007/04/30/contact-form-7/.
Subscribe to Comments
The Subscribe to Comments allows website visitors to subscribe to e-mail notifications to new comments on a post. The visitor gets notified when something new is said. You get return visits. Win-win. Available from http://txfx.net/code/wordpress/subscribe-to-comments/.
Akismet
Install the plugin, enter your WordPress API code (acquired when you sign up at WordPress.com) and you’ve got instant comment spam protection courtesy of the WordPress blogosphere. Available from http://akismet.com/.
WordPress.com Stats
The Stats plugin gives you a simple way to see a useful summary of your website usage. Requires a WordPress API code. Available from http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/stats/.
WordPress Database Backup
Have your WordPress Database automagically backed up and e-mailed to you as often as you would like. What else are you doing with all that free gmail space? Seriously folks, you need this. What would you do if you lost all your wonderful words? Available from http://www.ilfilosofo.com/blog/wp-db-backup/.
wp-cache
Improves website performance and diggability by caching your dynamically built web pages to static web pages. You can configure how often the cache gets refreshed. Available from http://mnm.uib.es/gallir/wp-cache-2/.
Nick La, the designer of the Glossy Blue WordPress theme that I’m currently using, has put together an article that he calls WordPress Theme Hacks. Give it a read if you are seeking out the tips and tricks used in creating a WordPress theme like this one.
