Monday, September 30, 2013

Blog Exercises: To Comment or Not to Comment

In the September 20, 2013, issue of the New York Times, an article caught my eye called “No Comments.” It is also available on Umano via mobile app or desktop for a listen. The article by Michael Erard discusses comments on the web, including a long look back at the history of interactivity on the […]



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Blog Exercises: Site Models

In “WordPress Site Models” I describe the three main formats for a site layout. They are static, blog, and hybrid. Each site model works for a variety of content and presentation of that content, though some work better for specific types of sites. A static site model, even in WordPress, uses Pages and not posts […]



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Blog Exercises: The Welcome Page

One of the many things I’d like to see gone on the web is the Welcome front page. Think about it this way. You invite friends over for a party. You greet everyone at the door with a full self-introduction, welcoming them to your place, instructing them on how to visit your home, telling them […]



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Blog Exercises: Choose an Appropriate Gravatar for Your Readers

All WordPress sites have Gravatars integrated into the core. Gravatars are Globally Recognized Avatars, images that represent you in blog posts comments, featured author images (integrated with Gravatars), author images, BuddyPress, and other Gravatar-enabled features. Near the beginning of this year of blog exercises, you were asked to add or update your Gravatar to represent […]



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Blog Exercises: Current Events September

It’s time to blog the news and current events for September in our Blog Exercises. This month, I want you to dig deeper into the news, targeting your specific industry and niche. With several months of blogging the news once a month under your belt, you should have set up some good resources in your […]



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Blog Exercises: Volunteer

I’ve spent years contributing in many ways to WordPress including on the WordPress Support Forums, WordPress.com Forums, and WordPress Codex. The other day I was cleaning out tabs in my browser and stumbled upon an open WordPress.com forum post. I wondered if the user’s question was answered. It was, but not well. I added a […]



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Blog Exercises: Top X Tips – The Numbered Post

One of the traditions in blogging is the numbered list post. You’ve seen them. “The Top Ten Software Programs.” “9 Things to Do with Clay.” “The Best 99 WordPress Tips of All Time.” “Top 13 Cities to Attend a WordCamp.” “Seven Ways to Find Love.” Numbered post titles and topics work. Want proof? I did […]



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Blog Exercises: Mashups

One of my favorite odd-ball mashups is the movie Moulin Rouge! Released in 2001, the movie features Nicole Kidman, Ewan McGregor, and an outstanding cast of top notch actors singing their way through a Bollywood-style production set in a 1899 France cabaret. There are few original songs in the film. Instead they used pop songs […]



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Blog Exercises: If I Were to Teach a Class

If you were to teach a class, what would you teach? Today’s blog exercise is to teach a class online through your site. This blog exercise does not have to be complicated. Do you have a favorite recipe? Share it with your readers with the techniques involved in preparing and serving. Do you have a […]



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Should You Allow Damage Insurance in Place of a Security Deposit?

security deposit


I own a vacation condo on Lake Erie, just outside the town of Geneva-on-the-Lake, Ohio. Like half of the people who own apartments in the building, we rent out the property on a short-term basis when we are not using it.


If you rent property to someone else, you face the possibility that the person renting will damage it. That means that I, like the many people around the world who now rent properties online through sites like Vacation Rental by Owner (VRBO), Owner Direct and Flip Key, face an important decision about how to protect themselves from losses from renter-caused property damage: require a security deposit or ask renters to purchase damage insurance?


Damage Insurance Versus Security Deposit


The field of economics has a very clear answer to this question. When you rent property to someone else, there is asymmetric information. Because the owner does not know how well the renter will treat the property, charging a security deposit is a good idea. Renters will have an incentive to take care of the property to recoup their security deposit. If you are renting a condo for the weekend and you have paid a $500 refundable security deposit, you’ll think twice about having a wild party or leaving your kids unsupervised – one broken table could double the cost of your stay.


However, many of the vacation rental websites offer damage insurance as an alternative to a security deposit. For a $49 fee, Homeaway, for example, offers $5,000 worth of damage protection to short term renters of vacation properties.


In my condo building, several of the owners allow renters to purchase damage insurance instead of paying a security deposit. Their reasoning is that the insurance provides more damage protection. If a renter causes $4,500 worth of damage to their condo, they may be able to recoup all of their loss from the insurance company, but if they take a $500 security deposit, they know they can only recoup up to $500 worth of damage from yhose funds. Moreover, because the decision to return the security deposit resides with the homeowner, some potential renters balk at putting up $500 against damage for a stay of similar cost.


As an economist, I am surprised by my neighbors’ approach. With insurance, the owner is giving up the right to decide the validity of damage claims. If you’ve collected a security deposit and someone breaks a television, you can just deduct the cost from the security deposit, which is already in your possession. If you go the route of insurance, however, you run the risk that the insurance company will decide that the renter wasn’t responsible for the damage and won’t pay the claim.


More importantly, the choice of a security deposit or insurance demonstrates a classic moral hazard problem. Moral hazard is the idea that people will take more risks if they don’t bear the costs of their actions. For example, if you have a security deposit you want back, you will be more likely to tell your kids not to use the table in the living room as a piece of gymnastics equipment than if you have paid for insurance that covers damage resulting from their gymnastics show.


Over the years of writing for Small Business Trends, I have learned that many people who read my posts know a lot about the topics I discuss. Therefore, I am sure there are many readers who have a lot of experience with the damage insurance question.


So tell me and the other readers of this column: If you were renting out a vacation condo, would you insist on a security deposit or would you allow renters to purchase damage insurance instead?


Jumping Photo via Shutterstock


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How to Install and Setup WordPress SEO Plugin by Yoast

At WPBeginner we use WordPress SEO plugin by Yoast. We believe that it is the most complete SEO solution for your WordPress blog. With tons of features and options this plugin provides an alternate to the users of famous All in One SEO Pack. In this article, we will show you how to install and setup WordPress SEO by Yoast and utilize all the awesome features that comes built-in.


Features


First let’s take a look at the features this plugin has to offer:



  • Post title and meta description meta box to change these on a per post basis.

  • Taxonomy (tag, category & custom taxonomy) title and meta description support.

  • Google search result snippet previews.

  • Focus keyword testing.

  • Meta Robots configuration:

    • Easily add noodp, noydir meta tags.

    • Easily noindex, or nofollow pages, taxonomies or entire archives.



  • Improved canonical support, adding canonical to taxonomy archives, single posts and pages and the front page.

  • RSS footer / header configuration.

  • Permalink clean ups, while still allowing for Google Custom Search.

  • Breadcrumbs support, with configurable breadcrumbs titles.

  • XML Sitemaps with:

    • Images

    • Configurable removal of post types and taxonomies

    • Pages or posts that have been noindexed will not show in XML sitemap (but can if you want them too).



  • XML News Sitemaps.

  • .htaccess and robots.txt editor.

  • Ability to verify Google Webmaster Tools, Yahoo Site Explorer, and Bing Webmaster Tools

  • Basic import functionality for HeadSpace2 and All in One SEO. (You can also use the SEO Data Transporter to transfer functionality from themes like Thesis, Headway, Genesis etc).


So after seeing all of these features, it is confirmed that this is by far the MOST COMPLETE WordPress SEO plugin. Joost combined his other plugins like RSS Footer, HeadSpace2, Yoast Breadcrumbs, and others to create this powerhouse plugin.


How to Install WordPress SEO Plugin by Yoast


First thing you need to do is install and activate WordPress SEO plugin by Yoast, see our guide on how to install a plugin in WordPress. Upon activation, you should see a new tab added in the admin panel called SEO with Yoast’s logo on it.


WordPress SEO menu after successful installation of the plugin


Now that you have installed and activated the plugin, let’s take a look at setting this bad boy up.


How to Setup WordPress SEO Plugin by Yoast


You should remember, that the settings that we select are the ones that we recommend. Other experts may have their own preferences and discretion, so advanced users can ignore anything that they do not like. If you are a beginner, and you want to use Yoast’s WordPress SEO plugin like we do, then please follow along the steps carefully.


Step 1. Data Transfer


Most of you probably have another WordPress plugin like All in One SEO pack, or a theme framework like Genesis, Thesis, or Headway dealing with your SEO data. If you want to successfully use this plugin, then you need to make sure that all of your previous data has been transported to this plugin before you deactivate the other one. To accomplish this, we recommend using SEO Data Transporter by StudioPress. If you’re setting this up on a new blog, then skip this step.


Setp 2. General Settings


Clicking on the SEO icon takes you to WordPress SEO by Yoast’s General settings page. You can take a tour here to learn more about the plugin. You can also reset your plugin to default settings from this page. There is a tracking option, checking it will send anonymous usage data back to plugin author. You can uncheck this box if you don’t want to share this information (we have it unchecked). Then there is a security option to disable advanced part of the WordPress SEO meta box. We recommend that you leave it checked. Checking it will prevent your authors from making changes like redirects and noindex which could create problem for you later on.


WordPress SEO Plugin - General Settings


Step 3. Webmaster Tools


If you know a little bit about SEO, then you have probably heard that each of the popular search engines, Google, Yahoo, and Bing allow site owners to add their sites using webmaster tools area (see our guide on how to add your WordPress site to Google webmaster tools). Webmaster tools lets you see insights and other relevant data about your site from the specific search engines. In order to verify your site and see those exclusive data, you have to add a meta tag to your site, or upload a file. Most beginners are afraid to add meta tags, so Joost put this option in to ease the process. Simply add your meta code that you received from the search engines in the respective fields.


Yoast SEO Plugin - Webmaster Tools


Step 4. Titles & Metas


Titles & Metas section under WordPress SEO has several tabs in it. We will cover each one of them.


Yoast WordPress SEO - Title and Metas


1. General


Clicking on it will land you on the General tab. Here you can configure some site wide general settings. WordPress SEO can auto-detect whether it needs to re-write titles or not. So you can leave this as it is, usually it is unchecked. Check the meta keywords checkbox. Under clean up the head section you can safely check hide shortlink for posts. If you are not using a client or app to update your site, then you can also check hide RSD links and WLW Manifest Links.


Yoast WordPress SEO - General Meta Settings


2. Home Title


Next we will work on defining the title for our homepage. By default you will see these fields pre-filled with title-template. So what is the difference between a title and a title template, you may ask. In instances like your home page, you may want to create a static title, description, and keywords. But for posts, the title will vary from one post to another. Title templates allow you to define a way that the title and other meta information is pulled and organized. Let’s take a look at the image below for the home page settings. By default the template variables in the title field work fine for most website however you’re welcome to change it. The next option is to enter your site’s description. Once you are done, click on save settings button.


Yoast WordPress SEO - Home title and meta


If you are using a static home page in WordPress, then you would have to edit the settings from the page edit screen.


3. Post Types Titles & Metas


By default WordPress comes with several post types such as post, page, revisions, attachment, and navigation menus. Users can also define their own custom post types. WordPress SEO allows you to set titles and meta for posts, pages, media, and other custom post types.


WordPress SEO automatically enters title template variables for all your post types and leaves your description and other fields blank. We recommend that you change the title templates where you only keep the actual title element and remove the sitename.


WordPress SEO Plugin - Post Type Title Settings


Remember WordPress SEO plugin also adds an SEO meta box in your post edit area. For maximum SEO benefits, we highly recommend you to manually enter title and descriptions for each post. Otherwise WordPress SEO will use the title as defined here and will automatically add description for your posts and pages.


Read our WordPress SEO Tip for Beginners on optimizing blog posts.


4. Taxonomies


On the taxonomies tab, you can configure titles and meta for Categories, tags, custom taxonomies, and post format archives. Default template variables should work for most sites. As for descriptions, please remember that WordPress SEO picks up descriptions from your categories and tags.


Yoast WordPress SEO - Taxonomies title and meta settings


If you do not have any description for terms in your categories, tags, or custom taxonomies, then WordPress SEO does not add meta description in archives for these terms. Check out our guide on categories vs. tags.


5. Other


On the other tab you have title and meta settings for author archives, date archives, and special pages such as search and 404 pages. We recommended that you check disable author archives for single author blogs. If you are running a single author blog, then your main blog and the author archives contain exactly the same content. The setting is there to prevent duplicate content.


Leave other settings as they are and save changes.


Step 5. Social


As we said earlier, that WordPress SEO by Yoast is a powerhouse plugin and is packed with many features to provide the complete SEO package. One great feature of the plugin is that it integrates your site with Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ social platforms. Clicking on the Social link under the SEO menu will take you to setup these platforms. We will show you how to configure each of them.


1. Facebook


On the Facebook tab, first thing you need to do is check the box that says add open graph meta data. Checking this allows WordPress SEO to add Facebook open graph meta data in your website’s <head> section. This will help Facebook pick up the right thumbnail and page information when a post from your website is shared on Facebook.


The next option is to associate your website with a Facebook profile. This profile can be a user profile as well as a Facebook app (check out ‘Create a Facebook App’ section in our guide on how to add Facebook recommendation bar in WordPress). Adding a Facebook admin will give you access to Facebook Insights for your site.


Adding Facebook social settings in WordPress SEO plugin by Yoast


Enter your your Facebook page URL if you have one. The next option is to provide a thumbnail location for your home page and a description. This image and description will be used when someone shares the homepage of your site on Facebook. Lastly, provide a default thumbnail image URL. This image will be used for all articles that do not have a thumbnail or any other image in it.


2. Twitter


As for Twitter, you can add Twitter cards into your site’s head section and provide a Twitter user handle. This could be your website’s twitter account like @wpbeginner or your personal account @syedbalkhi.


Adding Twitter cards to WordPress using WordPress SEO by Yoast


3. Google+


On the Google+ tab, choose the user who should appear as the author of the homepage from a drop down menu. Remember that WordPress SEO plugin also adds a Google+ URL field in User » Your Profile page. So make sure that the user you select here has entered their Google+ URL in their profile and verified the authorship. The second option for this page is to enter your Google+ Publisher page. If you have created a Google+ page for your business enter its URL here, and then go to your Google+ business page and enter your website’s URL in about section.


Adding your Google+ profile to WordPress SEO


Step 6. XML Sitemaps


Sitemaps are essential for your WordPress site. It is the quickest and easiest way to get indexed and notify search engines about your content. Sitemaps also allow you to tell search engines how to prioritize your content. WordPress SEO by Yoast makes it super easy to add XML sitemaps in WordPress. Make sure that the box that says ‘Check this box to enable XML sitemap functionality’ is checked. Also disable author/user sitemaps specially if you are running a single author blog. WordPress SEO will automatically ping Google and Bing however you can enable it to ping Yahoo and Ask.com as well. Lastly, you can exclude any post types or taxonomies that don’t want to appear in sitemaps.


Adding XML sitemaps to WordPress using WordPress SEO plugin by Yoast


By default WordPress SEO adds 1000 entries per page in your sitemap. However, if your website is facing memory issues, then you can reduce that number here.


Step 7. Permalinks


Just to be clear, we are talking about the Permalink settings in Yoast SEO tab, not in the setting tabs. This plugin adds on to those that are built-in to WordPress. This section does not allow you to create SEO Friendly URLs in WordPress. It assumes, that you have already done that. So let’s take a look at what type of features this section offers:


Configuring Permalinks Settings in WordPress SEO by Yoast


WordPress by default adds a category base in each url i.e /category/. By checking the first box, you can strip that part from your category URLs. This is something that a lot of people want. But you can leave it unchecked if you do not want your category urls and page urls to conflict if they are the same name.


Next feature is to enforce a trailing slash on all category and tag urls. If you are one of the users, who have .html at the end of their posts, then you probably want to select this option.


The next option is to remove stop words from permalinks. Stop words are common words used in plain language. Yoast believes that by removing these, you will create cleaner URLs. While it does make the URLs smaller, we disagree with Yoast. This is why we have left it unchecked.


Next option is to redirect attachment URLs to parent post. WordPress allows you to attach images and other media to posts. But all of those attachments get their own URLs which in most cases are unnecessary. Therefore by checking this box, you redirect all your attachment page URL to the original post URL.


The next option on the permalinks page is to remove ?replytocom variable from comment reply links. It disables the links for the users with javascript disabled. Most web crawlers when they visit your site have javascript disabled, so they do not see the URL and can quickly move on. This increases the crawl efficiency particularly if you are running a site with lots of comments.


Redirect ugly URLs to clean permalinks option is not needed in most cases. We advise you to ignore it unless you know what you’re doing.


The last option to configure on Permalinks page is canonical URL settings. We would recommend that you leave them as they are.


Step 8. Internal Links


This section of WordPress SEO is not about internal linking within your posts. It is actually about breadcrumbs which are great for internal linking because it defines a clean path or trail to the page you are on. These breadcrumbs also appear in search results giving your site extra advantage in the search.


Breadcrumbs appearing in Search Results


First thing you need to do on internal links page under SEO is to enable Breadcrumbs. Then enter a separator you want to use between breadcrumbs. Enter an anchor text for your home page. You can add a prefix for the breadcrumb path, search, archives, and 404 pages. These prefixes will not appear in search but on your site.


Step 9. RSS Feeds


WordPress SEO plugin has an RSS Feeds section, which allows you to add backlinks to yourself in your feed content because most content scrapers are using your feeds to steal your content. This way, you will get backlinks from their site, and google will know that you are the original source. There are options to add your author link, Post link, blog link, and blog description. So get creative. This can also be used to add advertisement to your RSS feed.


Add custom content to your RSS Feeds in WordPress


For advanced users: How to Add Custom Content and Completely Manipulate your RSS Feeds.


Step 10. Import & Export


As you can see that we have spent a good amount of time getting these settings just right, so you probably want to export the settings as Backup (just incase if you accidentally mess things up in the future). You can also export settings to use it as an initial guideline for all of your future sites that you are going to use this plugin on.


**Note** There is an Edit tab below Import & Export section, but we will not cover that. Most beginners or even intermediates should not get close to that section.


Step 11: Customizing and Maximizing the Benefit


Just installing and setting up this plugin is not enough. In order for you to really maximize the benefit of this plugin, you need to customize the settings on per post basis. Now this would not be a chore if you do it every time you write a post. Let’s take a look at how you can maximize the benefits by customizing.


WordPress SEO for Individual Posts and Pages


WordPress SEO meta box for Individual Posts and Pages


On each post and page editor page, you will see this new box called WordPress SEO that has tons of fields like SEO Title, Meta Description etc. You should write a custom title, and meta description rather than letting it auto-generate. Sometimes your post title, and your SEO title might not be the same. Every time, you should write a custom Meta Description because the excerpt generator only picks up the first paragraph which might not be the most important one. Make sure you select a focus keyword, so you can get analysis on how strong your page is for that keyword. For more details check out WordPress SEO tip for beginners – how to optimize your WordPress blog posts.


Once you click Save the post, there is a tab called Page Analysis. This gives you even further insights about your specific post or page.


Post or Page Analysis in WordPress SEO


Use the free analysis as a reference point. Don’t kill yourself over it, but usually it is pretty accurate.


WordPress SEO for Archives (Category / Author / Tags)


You can override the Title Templates that we created in Step 5 to maximize the benefits. Simply Edit any Category, Tag, or Author to see the WordPress SEO settings added.


We hope that we covered every thing in this guide for WordPress SEO plugin by Yoast, and we hope that it helps you install and set it up the right way. If you still have questions about the setup, then please leave a comment below. For support queries, please utilize the official forum.


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Do You Believe?

“The Triumph of Hope Over Experience”


Dear Business-Builder,


Without it, there would be no second marriages … no cheering crowds behind Hillary, Obama or John on the six o’clock news … and of course, no Las Vegas.


The fact is, no matter how cynical, negative or worldly-wise each of us wants the world to think we are, all of us want to believe. Desperately.


And the simple fact is, hundreds of billions of dollars are earned each year by marketers who do little else but:




  1. Identify a deep-seated desire that is resident in a particular market niche,

  2. Create a promo that suspends their prospects’ disbelief and

  3. Step back and allow the prospect’s desire to believe to do the rest.


Take Vegas, for instance. We all know it’s the world’s greatest fleecing machine. We know that there are no games of chance there – that the odds are heavily weighted in favor of the casinos.


And yet even those of us who never expect to beat the house happily fork over thousands for travel, lodging and food – and then blissfully lose thousands more at the tables, knowing from experience that we’re being played for suckers.


Now I ask you: Is this anything a sentient, self-respecting, intelligent creature would do?


No. And that’s the whole point.


We are NOT sentient, self-respecting intelligent creatures. We only tell ourselves that we are. The truth is, we are driven by emotion. We only use our thinking brain to rationalize those emotional decisions after they’re made.


Think that’s an overstatement?


Don’t tell me, tell one of my former crackerjack copywriters. A while back, she found a medical study you should consider …


Seems some people who suffer minimal brain damage retain their cognitive ability – their ability to reason – but lose their ability to feel any emotion. And when a major medical institution studied these poor souls, they found something fascinating …



When deprived of their ability to feel emotion, these still-intelligent, rational, thinking people were incapable of making ANY decision. They couldn’t even decide which shirt to wear … what to order in a restaurant … or how to manage their money!



I’m thrilled we found that study. Because it proves beyond the shadow of a doubt something I’ve been talking and writing about for years:


If we made our spending decisions on the basis of logic, nobody would buy a new car – suffering the massive depreciation that slams you when you drive it off the lot. Heck: We wouldn’t buy any kind of car – new OR used – for that matter. We’d all be riding the Metro. Or the bus. Or a bicycle.


The same is true about designer clothing … makeup … expensive watches … high-calorie food with low nutritional value.


And who in his right mind would spend more than a few hundred bucks a month on a place to live – especially in these days of plunging home values?


Frankly, I’d be hard-pressed to think of much that we spend money on that makes any logical sense at all. We buy them simply because we want to believe.


We want to believe – so desperately – that these things will make us feel more confident … more successful … more secure … more fulfilled … happier … that we spend our entire lives mindlessly pursuing them.


Just get up early tomorrow morning and turn on CNBC – or just about any cable channel that runs infomercials at night – and you’ll see what I mean.


Put on your thinking cap, now …


If I told you there was a non-prescription pill – made entirely of vitamins and minerals – that will grow hair on a cue ball. Would you believe me?


Preposterous – right? After all: If vitamins and minerals reversed male pattern baldness, only anorexics and bulimics would lose their hair.


How about “the size of a certain part of a man’s body?” Would you believe that a few vitamins and minerals will magically transform a water spout into a fire hose?


Wouldn’t obese guys be the most “blessed” of all?


What? You don’t believe this stuff? You know what? Nobody does!


But you know what else? There’s an infomercial on TV that’s generating millions and millions in sales for an all-natural hair-regrowth product and another that’s making some scam artist rich selling vitamins that make your thingy bigger.


Why would anyone with an IQ larger than his shoe size buy such an obviously stupid product?


Because we desperately want to believe. We want to believe so much that a few simple testimonials and/or a floozy batting her false eyelashes at us causes us to suspend all disbelief and crack open our wallets.


You don’t have to prove your case beyond the shadow of a doubt. But you do have to give your prospect an excuse he can give his spouse for spending the money. A reason why – although he’s surely a sentient, intelligent person, it was logical to suspend his disbelief – just this once.


Hope this helps – I’m going to spend some time brushing up on my basic Blackjack strategy now …


[sniplet clayton_sig]






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How to setup WordPress CDN with W3 Total Cache and MaxCDN

Set WordPress to use CDN with just couple of clicks. No uploading files, no complicated settings. Just W3 Total Cache and MaxCDN. Cake is harder than this.


Setting up a Content Delivery Network (CDN) for a website can be complicated. You might need to upload files to the CDN storage, update all links to point to the CDN, and time-consuming operations. Even with plugins or addons, all that easily takes at least 30 minutes.


I'll show you how setup WordPress CDN in a minute or less.


You do need to first setup W3 Total Cache and create CDN for WordPress with MaxCDN, as instructed in the previous post. Even with all that, it won't take you too long, and more importantly, it'll be very easy. And you only have to do this once.


W3 Total Cache and MaxCDN take care of everything, you don't need to manually change the image or file URLs. You don't need to upload anything to CDN or anything. Just enable CDN in W3TC with MaxCDN. It's so simple that it's pretty damn close to magic if you ask me.


The CDN information W3 Total Cache needs


Before you can configure W3 Total Cache to use CDN, you must have the account details from MaxCDN. (See the previous post)


From MaxCDN, you need



  • the custom CDN URL, which required you to create a new CNAME record, and

  • the MaxCDN API ID and API Key.


The Custom CDN URL is something like: "cdn.example.com" (without the quotes), depending on how you configured your Pull Zone at MaxCDN. The API ID is numeric ID, e.g. 1234. And the API Key is a string of various characters.


On the previous post, we set up the MaxCDN account and the pull zone for our WordPress blog. We got the API ID/Key and created CNAME record for the CDN. If you followed the instructions on that post, you should now have what you need.


Got the API ID/Key and the custom CDN URL?


OK, here's how to set W3 Total Cache and your WordPress blog to use MaxCDN...


Setting up MaxCDN to W3 Total Cache


1. Go to W3 Total Cache settings on your admin area (Click 'Performance' on the left)


2. On the General Settings -page, scroll down to Content Delivery Network settings


3. Check the checkbox to Enable CDN


4. Choose (Origin Pull) "Mirror: NetDNA / MaxCDN"


how to enable CDN on W3 Total Cache 1 How to setup WordPress CDN with W3 Total Cache and MaxCDN


5. Click 'Save changes'


You'll very likely see a warning on red: "Content Delivery Network Error: The "Replace default hostname with" field must be populated."


To fix, and get things running...


1. Go to the Content Delivery Network (CDN) Settings


All checkboxes on CDN Settings - General can be checked...


2. Enter the API ID and API Key you saved from MaxCDN to Configuration...


Leave SSL Support as Auto, unless you know better.


3. Enter the new custom CDN URL you updated on the CNAME records, e.g. http://cdn.zemalf.com, into the "Replace site's hostname with:"


W3 Total Cache settings with maxCDN How to setup WordPress CDN with W3 Total Cache and MaxCDN


4. Click 'Test NetDNA'


If you see "Test passed", all is cool.


(if not, there's probably something wrong with the API ID/Key, or the DNS server has not been updated with the new CNAME yet)


5. Click 'Save changes' to put MaxCDN into action.


And then, one last thing...



  1. Go to the General Settings -page and

  2. click on 'empty all caches'


Now if you open your blog, and check the Page Source, you'll see that the minified JS- and CSS-files are served from the custom CDN URL, and also images and files from your Media Library.


If there are files that are not in the Media Library, or among your theme-files, you should add them to the Custom file list under Advanced settings. These might include JavaScript-files from plugins you didn't add to Minify Settings, or images/files uploaded outside the Media Library.


All done. Test to see the results


Go to Pingdom Tools or WebPageTest.org to see how fast the different pages on your blog are loading.


You can also analyze your blog with Firebug / Page Speed / YSlow if you want, but note that they don't necessary recognize your custom CDN URL unless you tell'em. Of course, you will see the benefit in speed, even that the "CDN rating" in YSlow is F for example.


It is also possible that loading speed on individual tests go up. For me, because the site was stupidly fast to start with: full load time went up, but response time for the first byte, the render start and document completely loaded got faster. So getting everything loaded takes (just) a bit longer, but the visitor sees (something from the) page faster, so it's better overall.


However, CDN will even the load on traffic spikes and keep the site fast for everyone, which might not be the case when you don't have the CDN. Also, using CDN will even the loading speeds for visitors from different locations.


Summary



  1. Get your MaxCDN API ID, API Key and custom URL for the CDN (see previous post)

  2. Enable CDN in W3 Total Cache: (Origin Pull) "Mirror: NetDNA / MaxCDN"

  3. Enter API ID and API Key you saved from MaxCDN to W3TC CDN Settings

  4. Enter the custom CDN URL to W3TC CDN Settings

  5. Test




Original post from Zemalf's Website optimization blog:

How to setup WordPress CDN with W3 Total Cache and MaxCDN








via Make Your Own Website Tools Tips Tricks http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Zemalf/~3/RH-padSBtd8/ Best WordPress Hosting

How to create CDN for WordPress with MaxCDN

Learn how you can easily setup content delivery network with MaxCDN to get a faster loading site with a scalability that you'll need as your traffic grows.


In this post, I'll show how to setup CDN for WordPress with a MaxCDN. In more detail, you'll learn how to create a "content delivery pull zone" for your blog inside MaxCDN and how to setup a CNAME for that CDN (Content Delivery Network).


After these step, the next post continue by going through the steps needed to put W3 Total Cache and MaxCDN work together.


This post will do also if you're setting the CDN for Joomla or Drupal. If that's the case, follow along setting up the MaxCDN side of things, and look into the instructions on MaxCDN site for your platform.



MaxCDN


This post got started when a fellow from MaxCDN contacted me a while back, probably because of my speed related posts and guides, and asked if I'd want to join their affiliate program. They offered me an account to test when I asked, so I took the offer and have used MaxCDN here at the blog for several months after that.


There hasn't been any issues with it, the CDN has worked extremely well and it made this blog even faster than it was (and I believe the effect would be even bigger with not-so-minimalistic design). This isn't a review, but I can say that I'm more than happy with how easy MaxCDN was to setup and how well it has worked for me. With that, I'm confident to write a little guide about it.


MaxCDN is not free, but it's very reasonable priced and comes with 30-day money back guarantee in case you'd just want to test it. Plus the first 1TB that you get for a flat free will last a good while. MaxCDN has worked very well for me and the setup is as easy as it can get (no need to move or upload stuff anywhere), so I'm proud to recommend them with my affiliate link.


But now, don't worry if all that CDN and CNAME jargon at the beginning sounded scary, it's quite simple in the end, especially with these step by step instructions...


1. Get a MaxCDN Account


This step is quite simple.



  • Go to maxcdn.com,

  • click on "Sign Up Now" and you'll be taken to the order form

  • Create a new account.


Go to your email, find the maxcdn account verification email and click the link on the email


2. Create a New CDN Zone for Your Blog


After your account is verified, login to the CDN control panel with your new account


Click 'Manage Zones' from the top-menu


(This is the area you create "zones" for your files)


maxcdn manage zones How to create CDN for WordPress with MaxCDN


Click "Create Pull Zone"



  • Add Pull Zone Name (e.g. blog, this will be part of the long URL provided by MaxCDN)

  • Add your blog URL as the Origin Server URL (where you normally access your site = URL as seen in browser window, e.g. http://example.com or http://www.example.com)

    • Use the final destination URL, e.g. if you redirect www.example.com to example.com, use example.com and vice versa



  • Add custom CDN domain (e.g. cdn.example.com, a sub-domain that will "mask" the temporary MaxCDN URL)

    • Note that you need to create a CNAME record for this custom CDN domain, and I'll show you how in this article

    • The custom CDN domain is like a subdomain of the main domain, but instead of hosting the sub-domain on your server, the sub-domain will be the URL for MaxCDN via CNAME record.

    • The prefix can be anything, but for clarity, you probably want to include the "cdn" in it, e.g. my blog is zemalf.com, so I made my custom CDN domain cdn.zemalf.com. If your blog is example.com, you can make the CDN domain cdn.example.com and so on.



  • Add a label for the zone (e.g. blog's name, this is shown on the MaxCDN dashboard)

  • Enable compression by checking the checkbox (like on a site, gzip compression is a good thing for speed)

  • Click 'Create'


maxcdn how to create a new pull zone How to create CDN for WordPress with MaxCDN


After MaxCDN creates the zone, you'll see a notification like this:



Pull Zone has been successfully created.

Please create a CNAME record for cdn.example.com to blog.example.netdna-cdn.com"



Save the Custom Domain URL and the temporary MaxCDN URL for reference, as we'll need'em soon, e.g. copy-paste the notification with the "Please create a CNAME record..." to a text editor.


In the text file, you should have:



  • Custom CDN URL, e.g. cdn.example.com

  • The long MaxCDN URL, e.g. blog.example.netdna-cdn.com


3. Get the MaxCDN API Key


To set up a content delivery network for your blog, we started by creating an account at MaxCDN and proceeded to create a new Pull Zone in MaxCDN. Next, we need to generate a MaxCDN API ID and Key the W3 Total Cache will use...



  1. Go to MaxCDN and login

  2. Click 'Manage Account'

  3. Click 'API'

  4. Click '+ Add Key' (button on the right)

  5. Enter Description (e.g. "API for W3 Total Cache on example.com")

  6. Select 'Individual Zones'

  7. Select the Pull Zone you just created.

  8. Click 'Save'


You could use the same API for all your sites, and choose Master, but this is the more secure way to do this, and the individual API ID/Key will not be not overused.


Click the 'API' again, and you'll see your newly created API Key there.


Copy-paste the API ID and the API Key to a text-file.


Keep your MaxCDN API ID and API Key safe, no stranger needs to see those. So you and those configuring your websites for you only.


You can always find them from MaxCDN dashboard, but since we'll be putting them into use, it's handy to have'em in a text file. You should now have these saved:



  • Custom CDN URL you setup, e.g. cdn.example.com

  • The MaxCDN URL, e.g. blog.example.netdna-cdn.com

  • API ID (4-5 digit number)

  • API Key for the ID (long string of characters)


Next step is creating the CNAME record for the custom CDN URL.


To do this, jump into your hosting control panel, and create the CNAME record to the MaxCDN URL. That's the one you saved from the MaxCDN message: xxx.yyy.netdna-cdn.com, e.g. "blog.example.netdna-cdn.com".


After creating the CNAME record, using the custom CDN URL (cdn.example.com) will be "the same" as using the long MaxCDN URL (blog.example.netdna-cdn.com), which again, serves the content of the origin URL you created the Pull Zone for (e.g. example.com) via MaxCDN content delivery network.


4. Create a CNAME record for the custom CDN URL to the long MaxCDN


Before you start using the newly created content delivery network, you need to create a CNAME record for the custom CDN URL to the MaxCDN URL.


The CNAME record is done to the main domain. CNAME record, or the "Name", will be the prefix of your custom CDN URL. For example, if the CDN URL is cdn.example.com, CNAME record "Name" is "cdn" (without the quotes). The "CNAME" in the CNAME record is the long MaxCDN URL, e.g. blog.example.netdna-cdn.com.


How you create the CNAME record depends a bit on your hosting provider / domain registrar. Usually CNAME is created on your hosting control panel, where you can manage your domains.


I added instructions below on how to do it with cPanel (e.g. Host Gator and Bluehost) and how to create CNAME record on DreamHost control panel.


If your (uncommonly) using name servers other than your hosting provider, it's possible that you can/must manage CNAMES on your domain registrar. If that's the case, define the CNAME record there.


On hosts with cPanel, like Host Gator or Bluehost:



  • find the Domains section, and

  • click 'Simple DNS Zone Editor',

  • Find the 'Add an CNAME Record',

  • Enter Name = cdn,

  • Enter CNAME = the URL you got from MaxCDN, and finally

  • click 'Add CNAME Record' after filling the values.


To update DNS record on DreamHost...

how to update cname record on dreamhost 1 How to create CDN for WordPress with MaxCDN



  • log in to your account at panel.dreamhost.com

  • click 'Manage Domains'

  • click 'DNS' under your blogs URL

  • Find 'Add a custom DNS record to...'

  • Add "cdn" as Name (or any other prefix you set for the 'custom CDN domain' at MaxCDN

  • Choose 'CNAME' for the Type

  • Add the long domain name you got from MaxCDN to Value

  • Add (optional) comment (I added "maxcdn")


how to update cname record on dreamhost 2 How to create CDN for WordPress with MaxCDN

how to update cname record on dreamhost 3 How to create CDN for WordPress with MaxCDN


After creating the CNAME record, you can wait for a day to ensure all DNS servers are updated with the new CNAME before you start using the custom CDN URL, e.g. set up W3 Total Cache to use MaxCDN.


Check that the CNAME record works before configuring your blog / website.



  • If the CNAME record creation went OK, the Custom CDN URL (e.g. cdn.example.com) now "points" to your blog.

  • You can test if the custom CDN URL opens your blogs front page. If it does, then it's all good.

  • To double check, run the URL through WebPageTest.org or some other service that accesses the URL from otherside of the world.


5. Start Using Your New Content Delivery Network


When the custom CDN URL works, you can access all files in your site via that URL and it will be delivered through the MaxCDN content delivery network.


For example, if you normally open an image from example.com/images/example.jpg, that same image now opens with cdn.example.com/images/example.jpg as well, and it's loaded from content delivery network.


As there is no "special setup", MaxCDN can be used on any website, replacing the normal URL with the Custom CDN URL, leaving the "path" as it was.


In theory, you could go, search & replace the URLs of all static file (e.g. images, CSS- and JavaScript -files, etc.) with the new CDN URL by hand and it'd work just fine. But there's no reason to do that by hand, when you can do it without any of that trouble even when files change.


There are plugins and addons for the most popular platforms, like Joomla, Drupal, vBulletin and Magento. For WordPress, the easiest way to start using MaxCDN is to use W3 Total Cache -plugin, as after setting it up with MaxCDN, it'll get your blog's files served via CDN automatically after you set it up once.


The next post has the instructions for the W3 Total Cache and MaxCDN setup. If you don't have W3TC installed yet, start with my W3 Total Cache guide.


Summary



  1. Sign up for a MaxCDN account

  2. Create a pull zone for your blog at MaxCDN

  3. Get your MaxCDN API Key

  4. Create a CNAME record for the custom MaxCDN URL

  5. Start using your New CDN for WordPress (or any other site/platform you have)




Original post from Zemalf's Website optimization blog:

How to create CDN for WordPress with MaxCDN








via Make Your Own Website Tools Tips Tricks http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Zemalf/~3/uPmx9OR16k4/ Best WordPress Hosting