Most of them are badly formed in my opinion, so with a little research, cribbing of other peoples ideas and trial and error I think I have found the best title tag arrangement. Open up your ‘header.php’ file from your current theme and replace everything between the opening and ending title tags. The opening tag is:

<title>

And the ending title tag is:

</title>

Once you have found that code (and only that code) replace the whole lot with:

<title>
<?php wp_title(‘ ‘); ?>
<?php if(wp_title(‘ ‘, false)) { echo ‘ -’; } ?>
<?php bloginfo(‘name’); ?>
- <?php bloginfo(‘description’); ?>
</title>

I reckon if you craft your blog name and slogan / description carefully, you can get all your keywords into your title using this.

What are your thoughts?

It’s a simple idea and could help you to make extra affiliate cash.

All you have to do is head over to APB: http://www.affiliatepinboard.co.uk/affiliates/ and tell them about your affiliate program.

They want to know about any and every you may run, or even just be are part of. APB will then follow your affiliate link and sign up to the program too and then make a post about it on the blog. This means that APB are then your 2nd tier affiliate (if that’s a feature of your program) and the post on the blog will help to promote your money making efforts.

It’s simple, it costs you nothing and it might make you some more cash, so follow the link and tell them about your programs.

So I decided it was time to take stock and compiling a list of:

You know you have been blogging too long when…

Someone tells you an interesting piece of news and you immediately wonder if you can submit it to stumble-upon.

You go to your child’s parents evening and you ask to see their stats instead of their books

Your partner asks you to do the washing up and you really wish there was a plugin to do it for you

You don’t even notice anymore when someone has a typo

You smile sideways…

OK I want lots more of these please, this blogging lark is very serious isn’t it? Lets liven it up a little and have some fun. So please get commenting below and give us all a sideways smile! (Don’t forget I stumble those who comment).

Comment hitching is all about pouncing on the rising posts on the social network sites (such as delicious and digg etc) then as Jason tells us, you try and be the one of the first commenters on the post. Once you have commented you then promote the page on other social sites.

Jason explains it much better than me, so here is the video:

Click Here to Add JOHNCOWtv to Your YouTube

Blog Mastermind just got more affordable

Don’t miss this deal…

Unless you are an Australian you probably don’t know this.

The Australian dollar has dropped dramatically, from 95 cents US a few months ago, to about 68 cents US as I type this.

Why this matters to you is that Yaro Starak’s blog coaching program, Blog Mastermind, charges admission in Australian dollars.

>> You have to click here to join <<

I’ve already raved about this program before and if you don’t believe me, just do a search on Google for “Blog Mastermind Reviews” to see what other people are saying.

It’s the only program of it’s kind that teaches you how to make a full time living from blogging only part time, and is led by one of the best blog teachers I know of.

Already over a 1,000 people have taken part in the program, with many satisfied graduates earning good money from their blogs.

YOU CAN SAVE IF YOU ACT BEFORE MONDAY

If you paid for entry into the program right now with a credit card that is in US dollars, you would save roughly 32% off the entry fee, because the course fees are in Australian dollars.

If you ordered the $97 month for six months plan, your credit card statement would show about $66 as long as the Aussie dollar remained where it is now.

For the $497 AUD prepaid package, where you get the entire program up front, the cost on your US card would show roughly $338.

Note of course these prices are subject to change based on the current exchange rates, but it doesn’t look like the Australian dollar will climb back up any time soon (but who knows!).

It really doesn’t matter though, because Yaro is changing his pricing from Monday and will be charging in American dollars then. So you only have until Monday to save.

You can join here -

>> Click here to join Now – you really have no time left at all to grab this saving <<

When you go to the payment page you will see prices of $97 or $497 depending on what you choose.

Those prices are in Australian dollars, so the discount will show up if you pay with a US dollar credit card, assuming the Aussie dollar was still weaker when you ordered.

THE $97 MONTH PAYMENT PLAN IS GOING TOO

On Monday Yaro is also eliminating the $97 a month pricing plan. He said he does have plans to bring it back, but because of his bank and online shopping cart system, he can’t charge in USD for recurring subscriptions.

Until he changes his system or they upgrade the features, there won’t be a $97 a month option, only a $497 prepaid course option.

To put it in simple terms – If you want to join Blog Mastermind, the cheaper price deadline is Monday, so you better decide soon.

Here’s the order page -

>> http://www.blogmastermind.com/coaching <<

Good luck with your blog and make sure you tell me what you think of Yaro’s course if you join.

PS. Don’t forget, Yaro has a 30 day money back policy, so you can sample it without worrying about losing your money. Even if you are not 100% sure, you should give his coaching program a try now so you can lock in the Australian dollar pricing and if you decide it’s not for you, just ask for your money back within 30 days.

>> YOU CAN SAVE IF YOU ACT BEFORE MONDAY 13th OCTOBER <<

PART ONE: wp-security-scan plugin

Download: WP Security Scan

Author: Semper Fi Web design

Cost: Free

Once you have downloaded and unzipped the plugin upload it to you plugins fold and activate it in your plugins menu in the admin area of your blog.

When the plugin is active you will get a new tab in the top menu like this:

Here is what each tab will tell you

Security Tab

This tab is a ‘dashboard’ for the plugin, it reports to you all of its findings. One of the plugins features is to help you rename the ‘admin’ user and it will report to you here in red if the admin user exists. The way to rename this user is listed on a page called Change WordPress Admin Username. The other items it reports on are:

• WordPress version: 2.6.2 You have the latest stable version of WordPress.
• Your table prefix is not wp_. Your WordPress version is successfully hidden.
• WordPress DB Errors turned off.
• WP ID META tag removed form WordPress core
• “admin” user exists.
• The file .htaccess does not exist in wp-admin/.

Further down the page is a table reporting more system level information which includes:

• Operating System
• Server
• Memory usage
• MYSQL Version
• SQL Mode
• PHP Version
• PHP Safe Mode
• PHP Allow URL fopen
• PHP Memory Limit
• PHP Max Upload Size
• PHP Max Post Size
• PHP Max Script Execute Time
• PHP Exif support
• PHP IPTC support
• PHP XML support

Scanner Tab

Clicking on this tab brings up a list of files and directories which it checks that they all have the correct permissions state. If it’s correct the line is highlighted in green – if it’s incorrect then it is highlighted in red. The correct permission status is displayed so you can change the permissions accordingly.

Password Tool Tab

This is a neat facility which it gives you the ability to check the strength of your passwords. A field is displayed on screen and you are invited to type in a password, a graphical bar indicator progresses as you type, alongside words telling you the strength of the password.

Another nice touch is it automatically generates a random strong password which you can just copy and use.

Database Tab

It seems there are two major vulnerabilities in WordPress the first is the auto-generated ‘admin’ user – this is a security issue because every WordPress blog will probably have this user, therefore a potential hacker already knows half of a Username and Password pair. The second issue is the name of your tables in your database. By default when you install WordPress it auto prompts you with a table prefix of ‘WP_’ if you leave it as this then a hacker also now knows all your table names. This is a simple one to combat because all you need to do when you install is change the prefix to something else then install. This won’t prevent a hacker from getting in but it will make it more difficult.

If you have already installed your blog the Database Tab has the answer. Clicking on the tab presents you with a field populated with your current table prefix. Here you can now change it to something else, but as the big, bold, italic letters say:

Make a backup of your database before using this tool

Support Tab

The support tab is under construction but is a place where you can link back to the publishers changelog and documentation.

Conclusion

My conclusion of this plugin is it highlights the two most over looked vulnerabilities in WordPress – the admin username and the table prefix. Both vulnerabilities are fixable and this plugin shows you how to do it. What’s more having these highlighted to you will teach you to install more securely in the future. Some of the info that the plugin reports will go right over most bloggers heads but so long as you don’t get bogged down with the unimportant stuff you should be OK.

[rating:3.5]

Overall I would give this plugin 3.5/5

Killer feature: the ability to change the table prefix in one go.

So here are three killer tips for you to maximise your post input.

1. Resize the window

Take a look at the bottom right hand corner of the post input window (and edit window for that matter) and see that the blue bar has a grey chevron icon in it. Click, hold and drag down (or up), this will resize the window.

This is very useful, but the change isn’t permanent and the next time you write or edit it’s back to its normal size.

2. Hit the blue button

This isn’t a facility of older incarnations of WordPress. Along the row of icons (starting with B then I then ABC etc) is an icon of a blue button it should be about the 2nd from last icon. If you click that the whole input box goes full screen and everything else disappears from the display. Now you have maximum input space. To get back to normal you click the button again and the usual input page is returned. Please note saving or publishing is not possible in this full screen state.

3. Permanently resize the input window.

This option is so understated I never realised it was there. In the admin, go to Settings, then click on the Writing tab. The first option is: ‘Size of the post box’. All you need to do is increase the value in this field and hit save. Then the next time you go to your write or edit page the input window will be your new enlarged size! The beauty of this is the enlargement is permanent.

If you have found any obscure WordPress options please comment below. For the first person to comment with a great WordPress tip I will stumble a page on your blog.

So how do you count your words? As I’ve said many times before don’t use Word to type your blog posts, so that means using Word’s count facility is out of the question. So what should you do?

Well when you are next writing a post on your blog, glance to the right just under the SAVE and PUBLISH buttons is a handy little word count gem built straight into the core of WordPress. Keep typing and watch the little counter increment every few seconds.

WordPress now has a delete feature but to be able to delete the plugin you have to first deactivate it. This is the correct procedure, deactivate then delete, don’t be tempted to FTP into your plugins folder and just delete an active plugin. It might leave a load of settings behind that can cause the site to become unstable.

You can find part one here:Choosing a domain name – Part 1