This blog post will help you find the XML sitemap of your wordpress.com blog, and add it to Google using Webmasters Tools, a free service offered by Google. This is going to take 15 minutes of your time.

What is a Sitemap, and How useful is it ?

“A site map (or sitemap) is a representation of the architecture of a web site” , says Wikipedia. It helps Search Engines ( and even normal users ) scan your website real fast, and know your content in detail.  ( keeping it short and simple. If you need more info, simply do a google search )

It helps search engines find your content faster. That translates in to more keywords indexed, and more hits from search engines.

WordPress.com Offers Three types of Sitemaps.

Yes, and that’s really cool considering the fact that wordpress.com blog is  free. The first sitemap, is a page that you can create, with some simple steps. We will skip that one for now. If you want to check it out, go here.

Second sitemap is the most important one. The XML sitemap of your wordpress.com blog. This new feature was announced in June, 2008.

Example URL :  http://chiragchamoli.wordpress.com/sitemap.xml

Next, News Sitemaps

News Sitemaps are similar to normal XML sitemaps, but this one is specially built for Google News.

Example URL : http://chiragchamoli.wordpress.com/news-sitemap.xml

I know you are curious to know how your blog’s sitemap looks like. Okay, take a break and check it out. I have used Chirag’s blog as example here. You can replace the username and add yours, and you will get your sitemap.

Okay, now, what is  Google Webmaster Tools ?

It’s better if you ask this question to Google, and they will answer something like this. (  Jump here to get all the info about Webmaster Tools. )

Webmaster Tools helps you see how your site is performing in our search results, troubleshoot potential problems, and build Google-friendly sites. Webmaster Tools is for anybody with a website – bloggers, online stores big and small, government and education sites. If you’re online, we can help.

To access webmasters tools, click here. All you need to have is a google account, which I am sure you all have, or something that you can’t live without.

Let us Put everything Together now.

WordPress helps you create sitemap for your blog. Google Webmaster Tools will help you add the sitemap to Google and check it’s status, and performance etc. And sitemaps will tell Google about your content, and will build a friendly relationship between your blog and Google’s search bots. Simple ?

Verify Your Blog with Webmasters Tools

First, let us add your blog to Google Webmaster Tools. WordPress.com has made my job easy here. They have a very good tutorial explaining how to do this. Don’t worry, it’s very simple.

Adding Your Sitemap

Vow !! We are almost there.

On your Webmaster Tools dashboard, click on “Sitemaps”. You will see your blog listed there. Now, you will see http://chiragchamoli.wordpress.com/ and then a space to enter your sitemap’s name. Here, simply type “sitemap.xml” without quotes. Repeat it with news-sitemap.xml and you will have your second sitemap added.

What to do Next.

It will take some time for google to download your sitemap, and then even more time to index it. So, next time when you login to Google Webmasters Tools, check the status of your sitemap. It should say “Ok”.  And If you click on “Details” next to it, you will get the stats ; ie number of URLs submitted, and number of URLs indexed.

You may also want to keep a note of your search engine stats before adding the sitemap, so that we can monitor it for any change, ( improvement that is !! )  Be sure to drop me a comment if this brings more visits to your blog.

If you found this article useful, do not forget to share it with your friends  !! Good Luck Guys !!

How to add your wordpress.com blog, and sitemap to Google Webmaster Tools is a post from: Blog of Small Things - Google Wave Plugins

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Welcome to Chromestory.com

What can you expect from chromestory.com ?

Every important news regarding Google Chrome  will be posted on chromestory.com .. new features, security issues, bug fixes, and updates etc. A single source for all these information.There will be “how to” blog posts, news about addons, plugins, themes, when they are ready .. reviews of various plugins and themes …. and a lot more … everything related to google chrome … and a single blog … chromestory.com

Subscribe …….

Okay, now, go ahead and subscribe to the new blog, and wait for new updates … you should not miss anything related to Chrome if you are a regular user of Google Chrome . You should subscribe even if you are not a regular user of it .. because, some day you may find a blog post that makes you switch to Google Chrome completely.

Help Please !

Yes, I need your help. This is a new blog, and it needs your valuable feedback and support … send me comments or emails … subscribe to the RSS feed .. give a link from your blog or tell your friends about the new blog … participate in discussions … contribute .. there are a lot of things that you can do to help the new blog ….  thank you in advance …

The blog will be a beta version as of now, and you will see more very soon .. including a complete redesign of the blog !! stay RSSed …

PS: Thanks Chirag for the awesome logo design !!!

Welcome to Chromestory.com is a post from: Blog of Small Things - Google Wave Plugins

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When I started writing about “how to move to a self hosted wordpress blog”, I found that, more than 80% of people on wordpress.com blogs or free blogspot blogs want to have their own domain name, and move to a self hosted blog, ( yes, using wordpress, most of them said ).

Since I work in the webhosting industry, I thought, I would share what I know about hosting and self hosted wordpress.

If you are planning to start  a self hosted wordpress blog, or move your existing blog to a self hosted blog, you MUST read all these posts.

Note: When you start reading this collection of posts, its obvious that you have lot of questions. Make use of the comments form, and you will get the answer, the best that I can give you.

1. Why do you need a self hosted wordpress blog.

2. Is it tough ?

3. The first step, Finding a Domain Name.

4. Finding The Right Webhost. Part I

5. Finding The Right Webhost. Part II

6. How to Move Your Posts from WordPress.com blog to Selfhosted wordpress.

7. How to find and install themes and how to edit them

8. How to find and install Plugins, list of the most popular plugins

Want More ? Drop me a comment here !!

How to Start a Self Hosted WordPress Blog, The Guide is a post from: Blog of Small Things - Google Wave Plugins

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Most Popular Plugins:

WordPress.com stats – so that you won’t miss your stats as you used ton wordpress.com blogs. This plugin needs a wordpress.com API code, which you fill find on your wordpress dashboard ( link )

All in One SEO – For SEO crazy bloggers. I have installed it, but not sure how to make the best out of it. Yep, I am not a SEO guy.

Auto Tager : Suggests and adds tags automatically when you write, edit and publish your blog posts. Very useful.

WP 2.3 Related Posts – This will generate a related posts list via tags. You can add them to your blog posts  ( by editing the single.php file and adding a single line of code there ) or even rss feeds.

Google XML Sitemaps – Generates google sitemap for wordpress. This will help you reach Google search idnex faster. Good for SEO again.

Akismet – Created by the wordpress team, for fighting spam comments on your blog. Needs the wordpress.com api key, like the wordpress.com stats plugin.

So, that is a list of the most popular plugins on wordpress.org, soon, I will give you the list of my favorite wordpress plugins, ( including the one for sexy sidebar with flash animation )

Downloading and Uploading Plugins

The best place for downloading wordpress plugins, is wordpress.org/extend/plugins. Here you will get most of the plugins for download. Upload your plugins to wordpress’ /wp-content/plugins forder and activate the plugin from the dashboard.

Easy !!!

Wait, forget all that… with wordpress 2.7.0, which is the next release of wordpress, you will not have to download or upload plugins !! Yes, you can do this straight from your dashboard, ( almost similar to the  method used to install firefox addons ). You browse for plugins from the dashboard, and with few mouse clicks, it gets added to your blog !! Magic !!

So, that’s about it, plugins !! isn’t it really easy ?

Self Hosted WordPress How to : Plugins is a post from: Blog of Small Things - Google Wave Plugins

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So, thinking about moving to “self hosted wordpress blog” ?  learn how to find, upload and edit your themes

There are tonnes of themes available for you to download. Most of them are free. They are free themes way better than some paid ( or premium themes ). So, think twice ( or more than that ) before you purchase a paid theme.

The best way, will be to google a little. Try Google or you can go to  WordPress’ Official Website. Also, there are brilliant theme designers, with themes that will fall in love with. Here is one of my favorites, pearsonified.com

ps: I will keep updating you guys about beautiful themes that I find during my theme hunts, so subscribe to the RSS feed, for more

Uploading a theme :

Uploading a theme is easy. Download the zip file to your computer, unzipp it, and upgrade it to wordpress /wp-content/themes folder. Once it is uploaded, you can see it under “Design” tab on the dashboard. ( If you need to learn how to “upload” a file or folder, let me know, I will write another post in detail, about it )

After you upload the theme, check the “Design” tab on your dashboard, it should be there.

Upgrading your Theme

Soon, wordpress will have an option to upgrade themes directly from WordPress dashboard, as we do with plugins now. WordPress will download the update from their own server and update your theme. You will get notifications on your dashboard when there is a new update available for a theme.

Editing the theme.

On the same page, ie “Design” tab,  you have the option to edit your themes. Unlike wordpress.com blogs with custom css, here you get to edit each and every file of your theme; not just the css file. Some themes will even have their psd files so that you can edit image files too. If you are good with Photoshop, you can edit them and get it more customized.

Files that you need to know about :

As usual, stlye.css file is where you make most of the design changes. Color changes, font changes etc are done here.

Index.php : This is the main index file. The front page.
Single.php : File for single posts,
Footer.php: Yes, the footer file
Header.php : header file
sidebar.php : sidebar file   etc etc …

Click “Update” after making changes.

I think this post  answered some  questions that you had about wordpress themes on a self hosted wordpress blog.At the same time, it created more questions, right ? Good, go ahead and post them in the “comments”, we will find the answer together.

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Do you want to host a wordpress blog ? I know the answer is YES …  and I have another question for you -  “WHY”. Why do you need a self hosted wordpress blog ?

To own yourowndomain.com ?
To Experience and  Experiment ?
Make money with ads ?
Anything else ?

If you already have one …..

If you already have a self hosted wordpress, I need to know; what made you sign up for one ?.

Why do you need a self hosted WordPress Blog ? is a post from: Blog of Small Things - Google Wave Plugins

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1. Price
2. Support
3. Server Requirements
4. Additional features/offers
5. WordPress friendly ?

Price: I know, price is something that you look at first. Decide how much you are going to spend. If you purchase a plan which comes with free domain for life, you can forget the cost of domain registration. Also, when you sign up, use coupon codes, or promo codes, which gives you additional features, or discounts.

Support: Quality of support, ( the speed at they reply to your emails/calls, the quality of their responses, knowledge, and time taken to resolve an issue …. etc ) can not be judged unless you are a customer, ( forget about fast responses to your sales quiries, they usually reply sales emails real fast ). So, go ahead and search about other peoples’ experience with the company that you are considering. Read forums, blogs, websites with reviews about them. That is the best way to find the quality  of support.

Wait for the rest of this post. Here, soon …..

Finding the Right Host for your Blog is a post from: Blog of Small Things - Google Wave Plugins

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First, you should get a domain name. Yes, think hard, and select a domain name. But, keep domain registrar’s website open while you are doing this serious thinking. Because, you need to make sure that the domain that you want to register, is actually available. You can’t register someone Else’s domain name

You can use any of the following checkdomain.com register.com godaddy.com So, when there is a domain name ready, you can register it.

Tip: Do not register the domain straightaway , if you are planning to buy hosting for 1 year, or 2 years, most of the webhosts give you a free domain name with the hosting plan, you can make use of this offer.

It is okay to have the domain name registered with one company, and webhosting with another one. So, if you someone who can share their webspace with you, you can simply register a domain name from any  registrar, and start hosting

Some technical stuff

What makes a website ? ( from a webhost’s view ). It’s a domain name and some server space. It is possible that, domain name is registered at the company “A” and the server space is at company “B”.

Now, how will you tell company A, that your space, or your blog is with company B, or more specifically, on which server. ( think about a server as computer with lot of space, and hundreds of websites stored in it ). This is done using something called “nameservers”.

The company where you have hosted, or the server where your website is on, will have a pair of nameservers. Something similar to, ns1.hostingcompany.com and ns2.hostingcompany.com. You login to your account with the domain registrar, and provide them with your server’s nameservers and when the propagation is complete, your domain will be avialable on the web or, in technical terms, will start resolving to your server.

Propagation is the process of updating the new website, and it’s nameservres etc, all over the web. It may take up to 72 hours.

So, you register a domain name with a company, and update nameservers, and point them towards the server where you have hosted your blog. Got it ?

PS: If your host is your domain registrar too, ( ie, if you purchased both domain and space from the same company ) they will update correct nameservers, as soon as it is registered and you will not have to worry about updating htem.

Questions ?

Self hosted WordPress Blogs : Domain name is a post from: Blog of Small Things - Google Wave Plugins

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Yes, what if something happens to your blog ? You need a backup right ? Okay, just three steps, let us generate and download a backup of your wordpress.com blog.

1 On you dashboard, click “Tools”
2 Now, “Export”
3 Now, “Download Export file”

You will get an xml file.  You can save it on your computer or attach it to an email and keep it on your email account …. hmmm what is your choice ? Remember: Always keep more than one copy.

Now, How to Restore your Blog from Backup

Remember one thing before you do this. You can not restore individual posts this way ( unless you have downloaded author specific files, – ie, if you have more than one author for the blog ). Now, read on

1: Click “Tools”
2: Now, “Import”
3: Select “WordPress:
4: Click “Browse” and locate the backup file
5: Now, “Upload file and Import”

Done !!

Now, what if you need a back up of a post that you accidentally deleted ?

Hmm there is a way to do get a backup copy. Simply subscribe to your own rss feed on your rss reader. When you need to restore a particular post which is missing or deleted, browse through your feed entries and get it … and yes, make sure that “For each article in a feed, show” is set to “full text” here … Settings > Reading

Is this tough ?

Backup Your WordPress.com Blogs in Three steps is a post from: Blog of Small Things - Google Wave Plugins

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