Saturday, August 31, 2013

We’re still here…

Thanks everyone for all the wonderful comments. They are greatly appreciated.


But, don’t worry…we’re still here!


Please feel free to let us know if you have any questions. You can do so by posting right here on the blog…or…email me at our support email box at support@makepeacetotalpackage.com. I try to check it every day to see if there are any customer service questions that need to be answered.


And, don’t forget, all of Clayton’s articles are still available at the top of this page under the masthead. Just click the “Archive” link.


Plus, you’ll find some very valuable information in the “Copywriters Tools” section. In this section you’ll find our extensive Direct Response Glossary, Interviews with some of the top copywriters in the field and recommendations from Clayton on what you should be reading.


I’ll look forward to hearing from you!


Yours for Every Success,


Wendy Makepeace

General Manager

The Total Package






via Make Your Own Website Tools Tips Tricks http://www.makepeacetotalpackage.com/blog/were-still-here/ Best WordPress Hosting

Time for a Change

By Clayton Makepeace

Publisher & Editor,

THE TOTAL PACKAGE


Dear Business Builder,


Seems like only yesterday I was writing the very first post on this blog. Actually, it was the end of June in 2005; five years and seven months ago.


Since then, we’ve …



  • Attracted nearly 40,000 regular readers …

  • Published 1,110 issues …

  • Hosted well over 100 marketers and copywriters at our “Power Marketing Summit” at $5,000 per seat …

  • Held dozens of webinars and teleseminars and created dozens of products to help you succeed …

  • Received more than 1,500 pages of “Thank-You” letters and testimonials for our efforts …

  • And learned one heck of a lot about the nuts and bolts of online publishing(!).


And the one thing this experience has made me absolutely sure of is that I always want to have an e-letter and a website that keep you and me in touch with each other.


But now, I find myself at a very different place in life than when I launched this blog in 2005. And far greater changes lie ahead.



For one, I’m turning 59 this year – nearly six years closer to the time when, as my friend Gary Bencivenga so eloquently phrased it, I will “lay down my pen.”


No, I am NOT planning to retire anytime soon – in fact, I still get bored over long weekends. But the fact that my 60s are just over one year away calls for some significant changes.


For instance: I’ve often told you that one of the greatest benefits this copywriter’s lifestyle affords me is that I get to decide how much money I want to make. If I want or need more, I simply accept additional clients and work additional hours.


So, with my 60s rushing at me like a run-away freight train, I’ve chosen to spend the next several years fattening the kitty for my eventual retirement. I’ve already added one additional client and plan to accept one; maybe two more in the weeks ahead. And of course, that means I’ll have significantly less time to spend on The Total Package.


Another big development for The Redhead and me: Our kids are grown up! Our younger daughter goes away to college this year. Our son, who is about one year younger will follow her soon.


That means we no longer need to brave the frigid North Carolina mountain winters. But before we can remove to warmer climes (most likely, to Prescott, Arizona), there are the little matters of selling our 25-acre estate here in the Smokies and doing some serious down-sizing.


With me putting the pedal to the metal at work, supervising all that remodeling and other projects is falling into The Redhead’s lap – a fact that means she will also have significantly less time to spend on running this e-letter.


… So we’re simplifying

this blog in several ways:


First, as you know, we have now closed our online store. If we introduce new products in the future, they will be offered via e-mail and in our regular issues. That alone vastly simplifies our operation.


Second, you are now viewing the new, simplified version of this blog. It still contains all the things you’ve come to value most here – including all of my back-issues, free copywriting and marketing tools, the opportunity for you to comment on articles, etc.


Third, we will no longer publish articles by other authors. So, to keep up with any of our contributing editors, you’ll need to subscribe to their free ezines and/or visit their websites by clicking the appropriate links below:



Fourth, instead of publishing my articles on a regular schedule (every Monday, come hell or high water,) I will publish articles when I have a new idea or technique that’s just too good to keep to myself – kind of like Gary Bencivenga and others do now.


The best way to be notified when a new article is available will be to use an RSS feed to send each article directly to your computer’s home page. The link is below:


http://www.makepeacetotalpackage.com/feed/


Fifth, we’re keeping the e-mail address for customer care active; you can still send questions or comments to support@makepeacetotalpackage.com.


Finally, sincere “Thank-Yous”

are in order …


I don’t mind admitting that I’m extremely, unabashedly proud of everything we’ve accomplished in The Total Package since we published our first issue way back in June of 2005.


As I’ve often said, our greatest rewards are the thousands of notes from readers who’ve thanked us for helping them.


So now, it’s my turn to give thanks – first, for the wonderful people who have helped us publish this e-letter nearly every day for all these years … who helped develop our products … and who single-handedly untangled the inevitable customer service SNAFUs that all marketers are heir to – particularly to Jill, Martha and Pete, who will soon be leaving us.


And secondly, I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Daniel Levis, Troy White and all of our contributing editors for the wealth of direct response wisdom they have provided in these pages. Without you guys, this rag could never even have begun to enjoy the success that it has.


Finally, thank YOU, dear reader, for your friendship and loyalty over the years. I can’t begin to count how many times your blog posts and e-mails have touched our hearts and made us grateful for the opportunity to help you in some small way.


You also have my word that we will continue to be here for you, publishing special issues when time permits and most importantly, when we have something we’re sure can make a big difference for you.


Until then, I am … sincerely, with all my heart …


Yours for Bigger Winners, More Often,


Clayton Makepeace






via Make Your Own Website Tools Tips Tricks http://www.makepeacetotalpackage.com/blog/time-for-a-change/ Best WordPress Hosting

Things Aren’t Looking Good

things aren't looking good business cartoon


I saw a lot of movies this summer. For the most part, I enjoyed them all.


But unexpectedly, my favorite by far was not any of the various superhero reimaginings, sequels or prequels. It was Pacific Rim, where giant mechs fight giant monsters from below the sea.


POW! ROAR! PEW PEW! HEE-HEE! FUN!


So when I was drawing a new bar graph cartoon and the bars looked like tall buildings – adding in an angry kaiju just couldn’t be helped.


The post Things Aren’t Looking Good appeared first on Small Business Trends.







via Make Your Own Website Tools Tips Tricks http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/SmallBusinessTrends/~3/wsxv30Mx2Ek/things-arent-looking-good-business-cartoon.html Best WordPress Hosting

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

A blog between something and everything

What if I told you that this blog is not just about Internet marketing, WordPress or SEO? Yes, there is a lot here. Is there a method behind the madness?



After my post about never making money online, I got a couple of unsubscribes (email subscribers). That's OK and normal, people unsubscribe, but because it was timely with the post, I'm guessing the topic had something to do with this...


I started wondering if all the awesome readers and subscribers of this blog really know what I do and what I'm about? Some have read my About-page, but not nearly everyone. And to be honest, I don't want to scare people on the About-page with all the things I do and write about, just the highlights...


As I have variety of topics covered here (yeah, yeah, you should niche down and focus), one might think I'm a one-trick-pony, depending on what page they originally landed on, read and decided to subscribe and continue reading...


If one came here because they read my W3 Total Cache -guide and read my posts on how to speed up WordPress, they'd know that I know



  • WordPress

  • Website optimization


But would they know I'm into affiliate marketing and earning money through the Internet? Would they know I'm interested in personal development, getting things done, and have written post or two about personal productivity.


Would they know that I love efficient tools and ways of working like using a blog post buffer, and have shared tips on how to use Google Reader like a pro? They probably wouldn't, unless they'd read my top posts page or browsed through my blog archives.


That's the problem with being jack of all trades, a generalist.


If one would land on my blog and first read the perfect permalink structure study or the WordPress permalinks guide, they'd know I'm deep into WordPress and the tech behind it all, and also that I do in-depth research for the stuff I write and don't take the easy to road to find the right answers.


On the other hand, coming in through the guide on how to connect your social media profiles or the top 7 must-use social networking sites, one might think I'm just one of the "social media coaches" you see around.


If they left right away, they wouldn't see my Beyond Blogging book review or my take on the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog workbook, which both reveal that I don't half-ass anything here, including the reviews (which are microformatted with hReview mind you, something I definitely should write about).


If one landed on my posts about blog SEO, keyword research or how to get indexed in Google in 6 hours or less, they'd also know I'm interested and know a lot about



But they wouldn't necessarily know that I like optimizing images and htaccess rules to make websites faster? Or that I'm a big fan the ultra-optimized Google Analytics' async tracking code?


If the first post one would read here was little advice on getting nowhere or do less, well they'd know I can be pretty damn lazy blogger at times and that I'm not afraid to admit that I have failed or made mistakes. Or that I'm occasionally tired of the games we play and stupid **** we do just because everyone else is.


Those who've read the last post on why some people never make money online, might not know that it's really about making time, not money for me and that I'm not looking to get rich (quick or not), but rich enough.


And with all that marketing talk, it might not be apparent to an occasional reader that I don't just know WordPress, but PHP as well, and have posted neat tricks like how to show RSS subscriber or Twitter follower counts as plain text.


If someone read my comments on some other blog and ended here as a result, they'd know I that like blog commenting, but would they know that they were exposed to the advanced blog commenting tricks I've used to drive traffic and links to my blog?


Those who've read this blog from the start, or know my story before I started this blog, would also know that I'm into gaming, XBox 360, World of Warcraft, EVE Online and stuff, although all my gaming posts have since been moved from this blog to my gaming blog (to reduce the variety of topics even a little).



  • I don't expect people to go through my whole blog and all the links in this post, but I wanted to share you a bit about what I write here on the blog, since it's a lot.

  • I write about things I'm interested in and things I do. They're all somewhat related to blogging, Internet marketing and using different methods to do online business and make money.

  • I don't limit myself to any one tool, system or tactic, even that I do specialize in WordPress, SEO and website optimization in general (that's a wider topic than just speed btw).


So don't expect me to write just about WordPress, just about SEO or focus only on making faster websites. Don't expect me to write only about making money or marketing. That's just not who I am. I like to study and learn a wide variety of topics, and share those experiences with you. There's so many things I want and can do that being a generalist is the my way.


I write about and help people with wide variety of things related, but not limited to Internet marketing, WordPress and SEO. I wrote this post to shed a light on the broad spectrum of topics I'm interested about.


If all that is cool with you, you subscribe and read this blog. If not, wander away, and I welcome you back the day when something I've written is useful and helpful to you.


In addition to reading this blog, you can connect with me via my Facebook page, follow me via Twitter and check out my YouTube channel.




Original post from Zemalf's Website optimization blog:

A blog between something and everything








via Make Your Own Website Tools Tips Tricks http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Zemalf/~3/2fNyINrvHoI/ Best WordPress Hosting

The Fuzzy Logic of the WordPress (.com) Terms of Service

In this post I will prove to you that almost every WordPress.com should be suspended as a violation of the Terms of Service of the site. Proceed with caution


Warning: There's a healthy dose of irony (and little bit of sarcasm) in this post.



Did you read the line above this?


And the one two lines above this?


Good - This post is about WordPress.com and it's Terms of Service, and me wondering how any blog can comply with the TOS :)


OK, now - smile, laugh a bit... And read on.


FACT: WordPress.com Does Not Like Commercial Sites and/or Random ****


Take a look at the quote below, from the WordPress.com Terms of Service, or TOS, as it's often called...



the Content is not spam, is not machine- or randomly-generated, and does not contain unethical or unwanted commercial content designed to drive traffic to third party sites or boost the search engine rankings of third party sites, or to further unlawful acts (such as phishing) or mislead recipients as to the source of the material (such as spoofing); - WordPress.com TOS



That quote is highlighted on the page, so it's damn important, OK?


Excellent - now check this quote from WordPress.com support as an partial explanation for the above quote and the TOS in full...



WordPress.com does not allow blogs that are created for the purpose of directing traffic to commercial web sites, affiliate/ptc programs or multi-level marketing campaigns - WordPress.com Support



According to these two quotes, any WordPress.com that has been created for the purpose of directing traffic to commercial web sites, is in fact, against the TOS.


FACT: Links are the most important factor for the search engine rankings


Further, any hyperlink has the purpose to "direct traffic" to it's destination. And each and every website is either directly or indirectly commercial, even the non-profits (because they link to their donators / sponsors, from whom some are commercial).


Because any link, in theory will provide tiny support to search engine rankings, and thus, increase traffic of the target site, all links on WordPress.com are bad.


Clear so far?



  • Directing traffic to a commercial web site is against WordPress.com TOS

  • Any hyperlink will drive traffic

  • Every website is indirectly or directly connected to a commercial site (with a link)


Ergo, each and every WordPress.com that has links must be banned, because each and every WordPress.com blog links to a commercial website, directly or indirectly (2-3 links away), thus at least "boosting the search engine rankings" of a commercial site.


We're all doomed!


Stay with me. Read that TOS quote again.


WordPress.com blog must not have links to any site, because each and every link will "drive traffic to third party site" if anyone clicks on it (and someone will), or boost search engine rankings of third party sites (= not WordPress.com?), that are commercial.


OK, it also says with unethical or unwanted commercial content...


Unethical is kinda clear, but WTF is unwanted?


"Happily", the "clarification" from the support pretty much says that any content directing traffic to commercial website is bad = each and every website in the Internet, apart from Wikipedia maybe, but then again, there are links to commercial sites in Wikipedia, which boost their SE rankings, so linking to Wikipedia will boost the rankings too...


The 14 million blogs of WordPress.com (as of September 2010, according to WordPress.com stats), should be deleted. Maybe apart from the ones ran by WordPress.com staff / Automattic folk, since it's their place.


Doomed!


Not convinced?


Think of it, and look at your WordPress.com blogs:



  • Do you not autopost content via Posterous there?

  • Do you not link to your Twitter account?

  • Do you not post links to your WordPress.com blog?

  • Do you not create WordPress.com only to act as a satellite to your "main site"?


Links to Twitter are bad, let alone (auto)posting your Tweets to the sidebar or the blog itself (that's double whammy since it's machine generated/automated). Plus, 100% Twitter users link to some site that is commercial, and Twitter links purpose is to drive traffic to the site.


Adding Delicious widget is against the TOS since it links to god knows what places that sell stuff = commercial.


You certainly cannot link to your main site, because obviously you'll be boosting your search engine rankings, and why you'd want to do that unless you're in it to gain something...


Doomed, I tell you.


I'll be the first to admit it, that I have created WordPress.com blogs, because I want to aggregate stuff I do into one place, including this blog, Twitter and Posterous, just to name few sources - and that's machine generated, isn't it, although I wrote it the first time, but I'm geeks are pretty damn close to robots, so that makes it nearly-machine generated.


And I certainly have posted links in WordPress.com posts to sites I've something to gain from, as a pitiful attempt to boost the search engine rankings, and even that I'm the Zen Master of *Not* Making Money Online, one might argue that I'm "driving traffic" to a commercial site (I'm 100% sure one site I've ever linked to from WordPress.com, is commercial).


On the other hand...


Since the ~14 Million blogs are still running, I'm guessing I've misunderstood something of this :D


What do you think?




Original post from Zemalf's Website optimization blog:

The Fuzzy Logic of the WordPress (.com) Terms of Service








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Friday, August 30, 2013

Why Some People Never Make Money Online

Imagine to make money online by working for just couple of hours. That's the Internet lifestyle. But without ONE THING, you will never make any money



During the past year I've read a lot of eBooks and studied many training courses. All that in addition all the blogs I follow and read, the email lists I've subscribed to. In addition to the free stuff, I've purchased many information products, starting from simple $7 products and up to the $97 a month coaching/training programs.


I've liked (nearly) all the products and courses I've bought and learned a lot. In total, I've used hundreds to educate myself to online marketing. By now, I should be making tons of money, right? Well I'm making some, but we're talking a few dollar here, another there — probably in the range of four figures a year (not month).


So I am making some, but I didn't go through all that "education" to make couple of bucks. I want the hundreds, the thousands, the tens of thousands. But only very few get there, so how can I make sure I get there? It certainly won't happen if I (or you) sit on your ass and do nothing.


I shared my thoughts about this topic in my Posterous already (you can check it here: Success - Doing the things that you don't enjoy, which have to be done), but I wanted to continue on the subject...


How to Never Make Money Online


As got past that intro, there's a chance that you're interested in making money online. You are, right? But you haven't made much either, no matter how hard you've tried. You want to build yourself the Internet lifestyle you hear people talking about. You've already worked your ass off to make it happen.


Or have you really? By running around and looking for the perfect solution, looking for the next big thing, you keep yourself busy. False sense of productivity. Instead of working hard on the stuff that works (but is hard and boring), you go for the shiny new object. Sound familiar? The Never-Ending Cycle of Internet Marketing Product Jumping(TM), the eternal journey, where the only action you take is: "Add to Cart".


You want to make money online, but instead of making it, you look for "the system". You look for the amazing new software that will make you money, push-button easy. Just enter your PayPal address and hit go, and let the money flow in. Not gonna happen.


There are new cool products, services, eBooks and Internet marketing courses launched all the time, each promising to make you rich. You watch the product launch videos with your eyes wide open, stunned at the amazing information they give away for free.


You read their perfectly formatted, A/B tested, but so annoyingly long sales pages. You see the proof. You see how the marketer or someone else have made a lot of money using "the system". The system works.


You're hooked in. You buy their shit stuff. You dive into the training, reading the eBooks, watching the videos. Your brain is full of new information. You can't wait to start using that to make money. The product was worth every penny. Wow. You're so excited that you acted fast enough to get the limited offer. You're in the exclusive group who got to see the info, and now all you have to do is make it happen.


Why you're still waiting? You're not going anywhere, because you're not doing anything. Instead of doing something, you move to the next product. You use hundreds, if not thousands of dollars to WSOs at WarriorForum. Amazing stuff. If you have the budget, you buy the Product Launch Formulas, Kajabis and Video Bosses too. You're learning so much! You really are.


All That Info — And Nothing... Still haven't figured out why you're not making a dime? You're not making money, because you buy yourself a feeling of progress in the next shiny new object you buy. It's gonna be all the same. No matter how good the information you get is, nothing will happen.


Nothing will happen because you are lazy. Or you're afraid to do anything. Maybe you're afraid to waste time and money, so you don't put any effort into what you do. You're half-ass, instead of kick-ass.


Somehow you convince yourself that you're good where you are. Of perhaps you have the self-doubt. Whatever the reason, you're not gonna do anything. Why some people will never make money online?


BECAUSE IT TAKES A LOT OF WORK!


You need to write ebooks, you need to do affiliate marketing, you actually need to blog to make money blogging (go figure!). You need to get traffic. You need to build a better blog. Whatever your chosen method is, you have to work to get to your goals. Buying the course, training or eBook telling you how is not enough (duh!).


Getting overwhelmed by the number of options is another thing. Don't spend time choosing and looking for the best option, do first, evaluate second. You don't have to make it perfect the first time, what ever it is.


Yaro Starak, in his post about why people struggle to get what they want said:



Sadly most people know what to do, they just don’t do it. The reason is a lack of belief and confidence. - Yaro Starak



Take the lack of belief and confidence, add some laziness, and finally mix in the fear. It's much, much easier to buy new stuff and lie to yourself that you're taking action. You might be lying to yourself that you don't have the skills. That it's too late. You can't possible achieve what someone else did.


Truth?


You master the art of making excuses and you achieve nothing.


That's why some, if not most people are not making money, or they're making tens of dollars, and not thousands. The people who make money put what they know into use, they work hard. Those who don't do, don't get.


Don't be fooled about the big figures someone got "easy". Before they got easy, they worked hard, they failed, they put in the hours and then got results. The only 100% certain fact in the Internet marketing is the result of not doing anything. That's right. The result of doing nothing is zero. Doing nothing, gets you nothing.


Some people will never make money online, because THEY DO NOT DO ANYTHING, they just fake it to themselves by buying information products that teach them making money. The very few who do work hard, make all the money.


At some point, they have put in the hours (or the dollars to pay for someone elses hours). They are not smarter, they are not luckier, they just do more that those who don't make money. It's really as simple as that, even if you don't want to admit it.


Luckily - there's is one, and only one, solution to all this. With this one thing, THE ULTIMATE SYSTEM, everything is possible. But if you expect it to be easy, you're not gonna like it. It's the *real* secret to making money online.


Find the closest (literally) shiny object and look into it.


Will YOU be part of the very few who make it?




Original post from Zemalf's Website optimization blog:

Why Some People Never Make Money Online








via Make Your Own Website Tools Tips Tricks http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Zemalf/~3/QDyDtQDRRx0/ Best WordPress Hosting

Disqus LOOPHOLE for SPAM Comments in WordPress

Are you running Disqus on WordPress blog? You've probably seen plenty of SPAM and removed them with Disqus. Well, those comments are not really gone...



Are you running Disqus Comments on your WordPress blog?


Have you received comments that you've marked as spam or deleted?


You have, right? We all have.


Standard business, we get spam comments or comments not compliant with our comment policy, we mark them as spam and remove the comment...


spam comment in disqus wordpress Disqus LOOPHOLE for SPAM Comments in WordPress

Here's an usual lame-ass SPAM comment in Disqus, marked as spam...



Stay with me...


When comment is left to WordPress blog with Disqus comments, the comment is also added to WordPress database, like a normal comment would.


This is good in case you would remove Disqus one day, you'd still have the comments.


OK - cool


BUT


After the comment is received, Disqus picks up the comment, so the comment going to WordPress database it is not caught by SPAM filters or anything...


Not a problem, we just manually marked the comment as spam...


RIGHT?


well...


No.


Disqus doesn't think it needs to "communicate back" to the WordPress database and remove the comment there as well...


Check your normal comments (click 'Dashboard > Comments > Comments' to see comments in WordPress database), and you will find comments there that you've deleted or marked as spam in Disqus, safely in the WordPress database.


spam comment in wordpress database Disqus LOOPHOLE for SPAM Comments in WordPress

The same SPAM comment, marked as SPAM in Disqus, is in the WordPress comment, approved like any good comment...



LOVELY!


And if Disqus being slow as hell wasn't enough...


:sigh:


BUT


IT GETS WORSE


Spot a comment from "normal" comments that was spam, removed from Disqus, but still in WordPress database etc...


Not a problem, Disqus wouldn't show a comment removed from its own system and only existing in WP database, would it?


YOU BET YOUR SORRY ASS IT WOULD!


Go to the blog post in question...


You can't see the comment there...


OK - good...


Open the page source.


Search for the spam comment.


spam comment in page source Disqus LOOPHOLE for SPAM Comments in WordPress

The same SPAM comment is now HIDDEN in the page source by Disqus Comments. Not visible on the page, but there it is...



WTF?


Looks like Disqus Comments on WordPress, at least with the Disqus Comments -plugin, help SPAM comments to turn our blogs into black hat SEO shit, hiding spammy comments and links in our page source.


Please tell me that this is just some oddity in my blog.




Original post from Zemalf's Website optimization blog:

Disqus LOOPHOLE for SPAM Comments in WordPress








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WordPress htaccess: The Definite Guide

WordPress htaccess file needs tweaking for security and performance. To make things easy, here is a ready-made WordPress htaccess that anyone can use



Can I ask you - is your WordPress htaccess is in a good shape?



  • Do you have the essential security rules in place?

  • Do you know what you should have there?

  • Are you afraid to touch the whole darn thing?


No worries - after reading this post you will know the answers. You will know exactly what kind of htaccess file you should have. I will not bore you with technicalities, or go into details that you don't need, but instead - I give you the solution, right now:


Ultra Quick Intro to htaccess



  • .htaccess is the default name of a directory-level configuration file for a web server

  • it was originally created for per-directory access control, but nowadays htaccess can include many other configurations, mostly related to content control.

  • The file name is .htaccess ("dot htaccess"). Don't forget the "dot". In some operating systems, the files beginning with "dot" might be hidden, so keep that in mind.

  • the name of the htaccess-file can be changed by configuration (which is wise for security, but beyond the scope of this article).

  • .htaccess overrides the rules in the main configuration file, usually called httpd.conf.

  • for performance, it's better to use httpd.conf -file, but on shared hosting, the webmaster doesn't usually have access to the main configuration -file and needs to rely on .htaccess.

  • if you DO have access to httpd.conf, all non-directory specific rules should go into httpd.conf instead of .htaccess.


I promised I won't bore you with details you don't need, so that's it - in fact, you don't even need all the above, but I couldn't call this article definite guide if I didn't add some of that stuff in... If you want to know even more, check the links below on this post for all the htaccess information you'll ever need and then some.


WordPress htaccess


Good, default WordPress htaccess looks like this:



# BEGIN htaccess

# Protect the htaccess file

<Files .htaccess>

Order Allow,Deny

Deny from all

</Files>



# Protect the htaccess file

<Files wp-config.php>

Order Allow,Deny

Deny from all

</Files>



# Disable directory browsing

Options All -Indexes



# Enable the following of symlinks

Options +FollowSymLinks



<IfModule mod_headers.c>

# No ETags, No Pragma

Header unset Pragma

Header unset ETag

# Make sure proxies deliver correct content

Header append Vary User-Agent env=!dont-vary

# Ensure proxies deliver compressed content correctly

Header append Vary Accept-Encoding

</IfModule>



# BEGIN WordPress

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>

RewriteEngine On

RewriteBase /

RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d

RewriteRule . /index.php [L]

</IfModule>

# END WordPress

# END htaccess


WARNING: The redirect rules at the end might be different in case you've installed WordPress in a directory and/or run several blogs from the same domain. If WordPress has already added mod_rewrite -rules into the .htaccess -file (similar to above), DO NOT delete/edit them.


With these rules in place we have the basic security in place



  • .htaccess file itself is protected,

  • WordPress wp-config.php is protected, and

  • directory browsing is disabled.


Apart from the security, we just need the default WordPress redirect rules (the last rules there).


Add More Rules as Needed


The rules above are the starting point and suitable for any blog. As said, the default rules are what any WordPress blog needs. If you do nothing else, but add the rules I showed above, you will be fine. The following posts are for the tech-heads, geeks and crazy tweakers like me:



Editing the htaccess from WordPress Dashboard


I don't recommend using a plugin that creates htaccess, because you don't really need to use such a plugin, but you can use a plugin that allows you to edit it easily from the Dashboard, so you don't have to mess with FTP or SSH if you don't have to.


From the WordPress plugins I use and recommend, Robots Meta offers just that (in addition to all the useful things it does for SEO and stuff). With Robots Meta, you can edit the htaccess file from the plugin settings (just remember to back up the content before editing and saving).


Advanced users should always use FTP or SSH to edit the files.


WordPress htaccess and W3 Total Cache


With the default rules in the htaccess,



  • we can let W3 Total Cache add the rules it needs for Browser Cache, and

  • we don't necessarily need to (manually) add the .htaccess rules for performance.


Also, se can add other .htaccess rules for blogs, but we can skip the mod_deflate / Expires rules.


The rules added by W3 Total Cache are *not* optimal, but they're good enough. And since editing .htaccess is quite technical, and hard for many WordPress bloggers out there, it's good that non-techies don't need to touch it too many times.


For tech people, there's still the option to just disable Browser Cache -option in W3TC, and tweak the caching/proxy settings manually, and this is the best option for website performance. BUT for the "average blogger", the rules above + the rules added by W3TC are everything they need.


Summary


Add the rules I presented above to your .htaccess -file before installing W3 Total Cache (or add them in by replacing everything else but the W3TC rules). Always take backup of your blog AND the htaccess before editing the file.


If your site "dies" after editing the file, you probably did something wrong - restore the backup (or add only the rules in this post in) and try again. It's not hard, but be careful when deleting / modifying the rules already in the file, as some rules can and will be, site-specific.


Afterword


I hope I managed to present the kind of htaccess rules that every WordPress blogger could use. With the feedback from my earlier posts with htaccess rules for WordPress, while they were highly useful and comprehensive, I learned that some parts of them were complicated for the "technologically challenged".


Thus, the rules in this post make up for what I think is, truly essential WordPress htaccess. Beyond this, it's tweaking and tuning, adding your personal favorites, etc.


What do you think? And also: Did these .htaccess rules work for your blog?




Original post from Zemalf's Website optimization blog:

WordPress htaccess: The Definite Guide








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

W3 Total Cache -Plugin: The Complete Settings Guide

Learn how to easily install W3 Total Cache -plugin on your self-hosted WordPress blog and how to configure its settings for maximum speed



The extended version of the W3 Total Cache guide is available as a free eBook:


how to install and configure w3 total cache ebook W3 Total Cache Plugin: The Complete Settings Guide


Download the free W3 Total Cache Installation and Configuration Guide from MediaFire.


Introduction


Installing and configuring the W3 Total Cache -plugin for WordPress is part of a step-by-step process to optimize WordPress for speed that will make it easier to retain readers and keep the site speed on a level that Google appreciates as well.


The initial steps to speed up WordPress are laid out as the WordPress Speed Challenge here at my blog.


Why W3 Total Cache?


With this free guide, you can easily make your WordPress blogs pages load faster than before and save money on hosting bills as you can stay on shared hosting and still make your blog withstand huge amounts of traffic without compromising the performance.


Installing W3 Total Cache (W3TC for short) is just like installing any other plugin for WordPress (super simple via the Dashboard). The default options will make W3TC handle page caching, which it does similarly, and even a bit better, than the WP Super Cache.


But with proper configuration, W3TC does much more, like combining and minifying (compressing & making smaller) JavaScript and CSS-files, and also cache Database queries and make using Content Delivery Network easy (read: automatic). Because of all this, the W3 Total Cache is the best caching plugin for WordPress.


This guide is meant for WordPress blogs on shared hosting, who can't use more advanced caching solutions like Opcode caching and/or memcache, which are available on dedicated servers and virtual private servers. With this guide, you can handle loads of traffic with a blog on shared hosting, and you can stay on shared hosting until you can afford to pay for better (if you need it then).


For blogs that do need more powerful hosting solutions, Total Cache is even better. With the advanced options like Database Caching and automated use of Content Delivery Network, W3TC is the ultimate caching solution (the "Total" in the plugin name is there for a reason) and this is why huge blogs like Mashable use it.


How to Install and Configure W3 Total Cache for WordPress


The first step is to uninstall any other caching plugin you might be using, like WP Super Cache. We don't need (or even can't have) two caching plugins running, so you need to uninstall WP Super Cache before you move on.


Installing and configuring the W3 Total Cache is a simple step-by-step process... and actually since you don't necessarily need to take one of the steps and one you can skip altogether, it's really 3-7 steps, depending on how you count it :)


How to install W3 Total Cache


Here's the installation in short (as installing any WordPress -plugin):



  • (Uninstall WP Super Cache, or any other caching plugin you might have installed)

  • Install W3 Total Cache -plugin: Go to 'Plugins', Click 'Add New', Search for 'W3 Total Cache', click 'Install now' for W3TC, confirm the installation and activate the plugin.


w3 total cache installation 001 W3 Total Cache Plugin: The Complete Settings Guide


How to Configure W3 Total Cache -plugin


W3TC - General Settings



  • Page Cache: Enabled ('Enable' checked), Disk (enhanced)

  • Minify: Enabled ('Enable' checked), Disk

  • Database Cache: Disabled ('Enable' unchecked)

  • Object Cache: Disabled ('Enable' unchecked)

  • Content Delivery Network: Disabled ('Enable' unchecked) (*

  • Browser Cache: Enabled ('Enable' checked)


*) For the best performance and speed, I recommend setting up a content delivery network (CDN) and configure it into W3TC settings. It's optional as it's not free, but it's well worth it in the end. Depending on your hosting setup, it can even save you money as it takes the load and bandwidth off your main server.


I personally use MaxCDN, and wrote a guide on how to set it up here: CDN with MaxCDN.


W3TC - Page Cache Settings


Page Cache Settings - General



  • Enable (checked) - Don't cache pages for logged in users

  • Enable (checked) - Cache home page

  • Enable (checked) - Cache feeds

  • Disable (unchecked) - Cache URIs with query string variables

  • Disable (unchecked) - Cache 404 (not found) pages


Page Cache Settings - Advanced


No need to touch these.


Page Cache Settings - Cache Preload


With Cache Preload, you can automatically "fill the cache", using a XML sitemap. This means serving pre-cached pages to all visitors, even if a page has not been visited recently. It's OK to leave this disabled, and keep it disabled if you run into performance problems when the preload activates, or lower the number of 'Pages per interval'.



  • Enable (checked) - Automatically prime the page cache

  • Update internal - 907

  • Pages per interval: 7 (increase/decrease as needed)

  • Sitemap URL: Your blogs sitemap.xml URL, e.g. http://example.com/sitemap.xml


W3TC - Minify Settings


This is where the magic happens, and also, this is the hardest part of W3 Total Cache configuration. If you're uncomfortable to look into HTML source and find CSS- and JS-files there, skip this section. You won't have minify, but Page Cache will work just fine. However, for performance optimization and site speed, this is essential.


Skip the General, HTML and JavaScript for now, and scroll to...


Minify Settings - Cascading Style Sheets


CSS Minify Settings:



  • Enable: Enable (checked)

  • Disable: Combine only (unchecked)

  • Enable: Comment Removal (checked)

  • Enable: Line break removal (checked)


w3 total cache configuration 007 minify settings CSS W3 Total Cache Plugin: The Complete Settings Guide


If you run into problems with badly coded CSS, try disabling the Comment- and Line break removal. Well coded CSS will still work, bad ones might get into problems.


CSS file management

Theme: The active theme should be chosen, but you can set configurations to all installed themes here (even for non-active ones, in case you ever activate them).



  • Open another browser window or tab, and open your blog.

  • Open the page source (right-click, show page source).

  • Open Find (e.g. CTRL+F or from menu: Edit > Find)

  • Search for ".css" (without quotes)

  • Copy the full URL of the first .css-file you find, e.g. http://example.com/wp-content/themes/yourtheme/style.css (do not copy this URL, you must get it from YOUR BLOGS page source)

  • Go back to the window/tab with W3 Total Cache settings and the Minify Setting -page, click 'Add a style sheet' under Cascading Style Sheets...

  • Paste the .css -file URL in, unless the css-file is specific to certain page/template, choose 'All Templates'. Just in case, click 'Veriry URI' to see that the URL is correct

  • Go back to the page source, hit next on the find to locate the next css-file. Copy the URL to the W3 Total Cache, Verify.

  • Repeat until you've added all css-files from the page source to W3TC.


Notes: If there is "version number" like "?ver=2.4.1" in the CSS-files URL, remove it.


For example: /styles.css?ver=2.4.1 would go into W3TC as /styles.css - This way, W3TC will pick up the CSS, even if the plugin/theme updates and the CSS-version changes.


Note that you can change the order of the CSS-files by dragging them (hover your mouse over the file, and you'll see an "up-and-down" arrows), which might help if some CSS-files need to be before/after another. It's best to follow the same order of the files they were in the source code (taken that everything was working).


After you 'Save changes', W3TC might remove part of the URL, this is normal.


Minify Settings - Advanced



  • Update external files every: 216000 seconds

  • Garbage collection interval: 216000 seconds


For high traffic sites, lower the Garbage collection to 86400, or just leave it there by default.


Save Changes.


Minify Settings - JavaScript


TO AVOID PROBLEMS - DO NOT ADD AdSense, Chitika or such advertising code to W3TC!!


The process is similar to adding the CSS-files, but the problem is that many plugin- and theme-authors are not very good JavaScript coders, so they code can't handle minification.



  • Enabled: Enable (checked)

  • Disabled: Combine only after <head>

  • Disabled: Combine only after <body>

  • Disabled: Combine only before </body>

  • Enabled: Comment removal

  • Enabled: Line break removal


w3 total cache configuration 008 minify settings JavaScript W3 Total Cache Plugin: The Complete Settings Guide


Go to your blogs page source, find ".js" files. Add them one by one to W3TC. Again, remove the "?ver=2.4.1" and similar version numbers if you see'em. For performance, it's better to Embed JavaScript to the bottom of the page = Embed before </body> and use the "Non-blocking" -option


Non-blocking can be used if the functionality of that script is not needed when loading the page, but only after the page is loaded. (In general, interface scripts can be non-blocking, and scripts that modify the content usually need to be "blocking")


If a script doesn't work correctly when embedded to the footer (before </body>), embed it to the same location you found it, e.g. Embed script located originally in the <head>, in <head> = Embed in <head>.


Also, you can change the order of the JavaScript files by dragging them, which might help if some scripts need to be in certain order. It's best to place the scripts in the same order they were in the source code (taken that everything was working).


If a script is only used/needed on certain pages, use the Template selector to choose the correct template from your theme, e.g. Page for page.php, Category for category.php, etc.


Disable 'Comment removal' and 'Line break removal', if you're having problems. And if everything else fails, remove JS-file from W3TC (and seriously consider getting rid of that poorly coded script!!)


Save changes.


Test your site functionality before enabling the HTML minify! If you're on Preview-mode, test your site after 'Deploy' and change configuration if needed.


Change the settings (e.g. Comment-/Line break removal, remove scripts from W3TC, etc.) if there's problems.


Did you have a lot of CSS- and JavaScript -files to go through? Maybe you're running a few unneeded plugins, widgets and external scripts? Do you really need them all? Remember - best performance optimization trick is to remove stuff.


Minify Settings - General



  • Enable: Rewrite URL structure (checked)

  • Enable: Automatically upload mofified files (checked)

  • Minify error notification: Enable this to get error notification if something goes wrong.


w3 total cache configuration 009 minify settings HTML W3 Total Cache Plugin: The Complete Settings Guide


Minify Settings - HTML


Note: After enabling HTML, your page source will become somewhat difficul to read, so adjust CSS- and JS-settings before enabling this. And if you ever need to look into your blogs source, disable HTML minifying then.


Best Performance:



  • Enable: Enable (checked)

  • Disable: Don't minify feed (checked)

  • Enable: Inline CSS minification (checked)

  • Enable: Inline JS minification (checked)

  • Enable: Line break removal (checked)


Best compatibility with HALF-ASS coded themes:



  • Disable: Enable (unchecked)


Add stuff to ignore-field as needed (Advanced stuff)


Save changes.


Skip Database Cache-, Object Cache- and CDN settings, as those are probably disabled for now + the default options work OK, even if you do have opcode-/memcache running on your VPS or dedicated server.


W3TC - Browser Cache


The browser cache settings will change rules in your .htaccess-file if you have the Browser Cache enabled.


Advanced users probably want to tweak their .htaccess manually, but this is an excellent way for non-techies to get .htaccess-based browser cache set-up.


Go through the settings, and set'em like this...


Browser Cache - General / Default



  • Enable (checked): Set expires header

  • Enable (checked): Set cache control header

  • Disable (unchecked): Set entity tag (eTag)

  • Enable (checked): Set W3 Total Cache header

  • Enable (checked): Enable HTTP (gzip) compression

  • Disable (unchecked): Do not process 404 errors


Save changes.


Browser Cache - Cascading Style Sheets & JavaScript


(default = OK, no changes)



  • Enable (checked): Set expires header

  • Expires header lifetime: 31536000 seconds

  • Enable (checked): Set cache control header

  • Cache Control Policy: cache with validation

  • Disable (unchecked): Set entity tag (eTag)

  • Enable (checked): Set W3 Total Cache header

  • Enable (checked): Enable HTTP (gzip) compression


Browser Cache - HTML


(default = OK, no changes)



  • Enable (checked): Set expires header

  • Expires header lifetime: 3600 seconds

  • Enable (checked): Set cache control header

  • Cache Control Policy: cache with validation

  • Disable (unchecked): Set entity tag (eTag)

  • Enable (checked): Set W3 Total Cache header

  • Enable (checked): Enable HTTP (gzip) compression


Browser Cache - Media & Other Files


(default = OK, no changes)



  • Enable (checked): Set expires header

  • Expires header lifetime: 31536000 seconds

  • Enable (checked): Set cache control header

  • Cache Control Policy: cache with validation

  • Disable (unchecked): Set entity tag (eTag)

  • Enable (checked): Set W3 Total Cache header

  • Enable (checked): Enable HTTP (gzip) compression


Save changes.


You might change the Cache Control policies if you have issues with proxies, but other than that, the above config is solid.


You don't have to, but if you now go and check your root .htacces-file, you'll see that W3TC has added loads of rules there.


W3 Total Cache and Mobile Browsers: User Agent Groups -settings


This is where you'll do tweaks for different agents, e.g. mobile users, but you can skip these for now.


W3TC - Content Delivery Network settings


This is where you'll configure W3TC and the blog to use your CDN or (sub-)domain to server files in the Media Library, the Theme-files, minified-files, etc. W3TC does all this automatically.


In case you are interested in taking CDN in to use, WP Total Cache and MaxCDN make taking CDN into use very, very easy (read my WordPress CDN guide for the step-by-step instructions).


Preview Mode & Deploying the changes


After you've done all the settings, go back to the General Settings -page and hit 'Deploy'.


You'll see 'Preview settings succesfully deployed'


Hit 'Disable' to disable the preview mode and "go live"


Hit 'Empty Page Cache'


Hit 'Empty Minify Cache'


(as noted at the start, the 'Deselect this option to disable all caching functionality.' option seems to be broken, just ignore it, even if its unchecked by default)


If you want, check 'Combatibility Check' for some info. If you're on shared hosting, these are pretty much out-of-your-control, but will give some clue in case you have problems with W3 Total Cache.


It is normal that Opcode cache and Memcache extension are 'Not installed', unless you have a Virtual Private Server or dedicated server and have'em installed there.


But now you're done, you have succesfully installed and configured W3TC on your blog.


The Extended W3 Total Cache Guide


Installing and configuring W3 Total Cache is not overly complicated, but there are a lot of options in it (even that some are OK by default). I noticed that with all the step-by-step instructions, screenshots and additional tips, this guide started to bloat beyond a blog post - so I turned a detailed version of this post into a PDF and uploaded the eBook to my Scribd (embedded below).


UPDATE: Since then Scribd has changed their ways and made the download paid/difficult, but I uploaded the PDF to a free file sharing site, so you can download the W3 Total Cache Installation and Configuration Guide from Mediafire.


W3 Total Cache Installation and Configuration Guide


Don't be too scared about the 30+ 45+ pages, it's a simple step-by-step guide, but there are many options with the plugin and I wanted to include clear screenshots of the settings to make things easy for you.


Scribd has changed their ways and made download difficult and/or paid, thus the PDF is now uploaded to a free file sharing site. Download the W3 Total Cache Installation and Configuration Guide via MediaFire.


Updates and Versions


2010-07-12: 1.0 Post published.


2010-08-15: 1.02 Minor updates and corrections.


2010-10-30: 1.1 Total post re-work and update to the PDF guide.


2011-03-28: 1.2 Checked that everything is up-to-date. Updated CDN info. Uploaded a new version of the extended edition to Scribd.


2012-0912: Uploaded the PDF to MediaFire


Summary


Installing and configuring W3 Total Cache is a simple 7 5 step process, which you can take right now to speed up your WordPress blog:



  1. (Uninstall WP Super Cache, or any other caching plugin than W3TC, like WP Cache, WP Minify or such)

  2. (Place the essential rules to your WordPress htaccess)

  3. Install the W3 Total Cache -plugin

  4. (Optional: Check the General Settings, defaults OK, can be skipped)

  5. (Optional: Adjust the Page Cache Settings)

  6. Adjust the Minify Settings

  7. Adjust the Browser Cache Settigs

  8. (No need to touch the Database Cache or Object Cache -settings, the easiest step!)

  9. Advanced: Configure the CDN settings if you're using one (or skip!)


Download the W3 Total Cache Installation and Configuration Guide from MediaFire for detailed step-by-step instructions.


p.s. I've been told I should be selling my own products, and ask money for eBooks like this one, instead of putting it out there for free... I don't know about that, but if all goes as planned, there'll be plenty of opportunities for you to buy stuff from me at some point, but for now, you'll just have to get it all for free. Sorry.


p.p.s. If you like what I'm doing here, subscribe to this blog via RSS or email and connect with me on my Facebook -page.




Original post from Zemalf's Website optimization blog:

W3 Total Cache -Plugin: The Complete Settings Guide








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