I hope one day WordPress will include an option in the Dashboard to set a specific number of revisions but until that happens, here’s how to do it manually.

All you have to do is edit the config_wp.php file and add this line of code above the line that reads: “That’s all, stop editing! Happy blogging”.

define(‘WP_POST_REVISIONS’, 3);

The number 3 means 3 revisions. You can enter any number you want including 0. I think for most bloggers 3 is probably a reasonable number and I can’t imagine anyone going back to the previous 10th or 15th version of a post.

On Bluehost, go to Control Panel, File Manager, and select your blog. When the list of files displays, select wp-config.php and choose Code Edit. If you’re not sure just contact tech support.

The next thing I’d like to try is remove all the old revisions from my blog posts but I’ll leave that for another day.

P.S. I tried editing several existing pages and posts, on another blog, that had more than 20 revisions and the # of revisions changed to 3. So this is a simple way to clean unwanted data, risk free.

I just stumbled upon an article posted on www.mlsolutions.be (from Belgium) on how to increase inbound links to a site.

I haven’t tried this method yet but it seems to me a lot easier than link building through Article Marketing and other advanced techniques.

As you know, to the search engines, each incoming link counts as a vote for your ranking. The higher a site ranks, the higher the value of this vote.

It’s also important that these sites have a similar theme as yours. For example, if your site is built around photography software, you would want to get your link on sites that deal with camera equipment or photography tips.

The article goes on to explain a simple and free technique:

Google the following phrase with quotations marks: “photography” “add url”, (replacing photography with the main topic of your site). The results will show several sites that allow you to add your website link to their directory.

To find even more sites that allow link submission, try different combinations of keywords in between the first set of quotation marks.

Examples:

“football” “add url”
“football gear” “add url”
“fishing gear” “add url”
“hockey equipment” “add url”
“fitness products” “add url”
“adventure tours” “add url”

and so on…. The article goes on to suggest additional variations you can try to further expand your search such as:

“add website”
“add your link”
“add a link”
“add a site”
“submit url”

Some of the sites and directories in the results will not be quality sites but you’re bound to find a few good ones, if you’re willing to try out several search phrases.

In addition, bear in mind that some of these sites will add your link right away while some might require a reciprocal link.

A Simple And Free Way To Skyrocket Your Search Engine Ranking

Note: While I was typing this post I registered one of my blogs on two directories using these tips.

Update:

I recently came across some detailed and thorough information on how to configure this plug in:

All-in-One-SEO-Pack Configuration

According to its author, Jack Leblond, “Miss a check box or ignore a field and you are doing more harm than good – your site rankings could drop faster than Wile E. Coyote holding an Acme umbrella”.

This link provides access to a video from Courtney Tuttle and related posts:

How To Install The All-In-One SEO Pack Plugin For WordPress.

When you link to other sites, you have no control over how the owners of those sites will manage their content and checking all your links manually is not feasible or practical either, particularly once your site has hundreds of blog posts.

The solution is to use link checking utilities to scan and report on every broken link on your site.

Link Checking Tools
If you Google “Link Checking Tools” or “Link Checker” you’ll find several free online utilities. I have tried a few and so far the one I liked most was AnyBrowser’s Linkchecker.

On one test AnyBrowser’s only reported 1 false positive out of 156 links. Not bad.

Fixing Dead Links

• If your link points to a web page that no longer exists then you can either delete it or replace it with a similar page (be sure to update the surrounding text around the link).
• If you wrote a review post about a product or a site that no longer exists then you may just want to delete the post or delete the link and add note explaining why the link has been removed.

Searching and replacing dead links once in a while is a good way to prevent your site from looking outdated and unkept.

Unless you already have a product or service you wish to promote, as a beginning blogger, topic selection is one of the first decisions you’ll need to make.

You have two options:

1. Write About What you Already Know and are Passionate About

Pros: Much easier to generate content, less competition.
Cons: Harder to build traffic if only a small group of people are interested in your subject.

2. Write About a Popular Topic

Pros: Easier to build traffic and generate ad revenue from it.
Cons: It may be difficult for you to write about a topic, month after month, if you’re not really interested in it or if you lack expertise on the subject.

Between these two extremes there is a wide range of possibilities. I think you can take almost any topic and quickly come up with seven or more different angles.

Say you have a passion for: “Medieval Castles in Scotland“. What other themes can you think of that will allow you to produce fresh content on a regular basis?

I’ve never been to Scotland but without doing any Google searches I can think of a few right off the bat:

1. Historic Tours to Scotland
2. Hospitality (Scottish castles that provide accommodations to tourists)
3. Romantic, fairy-tale like weddings in Scottish Castles.
4. Architectural and Landscape Photography
5. History (Both Ancient and Modern. For instance, what role did medieval castles play in WWI and WWII?)
6. Online Games (I’m sure there are a few featuring Castles and Dragons)
7. Religion (Castles offering spiritual retreats to religious groups or the influence of pagan religion in Medieval Castles if any)
8. Movies (Which castles have been the setting of famous films?)
9. Real people (Scottish families who live in castles that have been passed down from generations)
10. Conservation and Restoration (Challenges of maintaining these fortresses)

You get the idea. As you can see, many of those sub-themes can further spawn additional threads and related topics.

Focus on a Niche

Once you’ve decided on a topic, try to make it as focused as possible. An argument can be made for choosing a broad topic, like Travel or Food to try to serve everyone’s needs and grab a larger audience. In practice though, it is much easier and efficient to start with a single niche site and then slowly expand into other areas. Attempting to provide all things to all people can become a daunting task specially if you’re a beginner maintaining and one-person blog.

You may think that if you pick a small niche you’ll soon run out of topic ideas. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Consider these examples:

INeedCoffee (I thought I was obsessed with Coffee).
Cyprus44 (This site covers the North portion of the island of Cyprus).
MyWifeQuitHerJob (Unlimited potential. This is a blog about Personal Finance and Successful Entrepreneurship offering an infinite variety of topics).

What If I Run Out of Topic Ideas?

After blogging for a year or more, it is possible that you may start to run out of ideas. In this case, you can create another blog and link to your existing blog or expand your current blog to include related topics. Continuing with the previous example, you could add “Medieval Castles in Ireland” or another country or just write about “European Medieval Castles”. (It would take at least two lifetimes to cover that topic when you consider Eastern European countries).

One major advantage of choosing a niche is that over time, you can become an authority blogger on a specific topic since few people will be writing about the same subject.

The same principle applies to blogging. There is no sense in spending $750 (or more) on a brand new blog design that later may end up not being adequate for your blog’s niche or purpose.

You may discover that you have a passion for an entirely different subject that may require a different theme with a brand new layout and design. This is one good reason for not spending a lot of money when you’re a newbie or don’t have a clear vision or strategy for your blog yet.

Do you intend to blog about a hobby or a sport or become a full-time Problogger? Perhaps you just want to start by sharing information about your industry and network with other professionals in your field.

As you begin to interact with other bloggers, ideas will come to you as to what direction to pursue and what type of products or services you would like to provide. All these will influence your blog’s layout and design.

There is a myriad of free themes to choose from that you can easily customize just by changing the photo on the header and making a few minor tweaks to the theme. If I were to change the image on this site’s header, I would immediately create a new look for this blog without altering any of the code or spending money. You can also change your blog just by adding a few widgets and plugins (all free).

As a beginning blogger focus on creating high quality content for your blog. How do you do that? Study what other successful bloggers are doing and consider taking a class such as Yaro’s Blog Mastermind course or Caroline Middlebrook Bloggers Bible Fast Track.

Once you’ve been blogging consistently for about 6 months and you have at least 50-100 daily readers then you can consider spending money on a fancy blog.

Another Approach

There’s another school of thought that says “establish a strong brand from the very beginning by creating logos, icons, images and a customized theme”. Yes, that is a good strategy provided: You have spent time studying other blogs in your niche, you know your niche and target market well, you have about 3 months worth of content saved on your hard drive and a clear vision and plan for what you hope to accomplish with your blog. It wouldn’t hurt to also have a viral ebook ready to distribute as a free download to help promote your blog.

Chances are most begining bloggers won’t take the time to go through these preparatory steps. Therefore, start small and start now. Learn and earn as you go.

I highly recommend using the services of someone like Ninja Blog Setup to help you get started. His services are FREE if you let him sign you up for hosting. What’s in it for him? He gets a commission from the hosting company for referring to them a new client. Everybody wins.

Note: I am not an affiliate of Ninja Blog Setup just a satisfied customer.