GameUtopia

What makes Wordpress so Popular?

I recently took a look at the whole Wordpress thing. I wondered why it was so popular and what the whole thing was about.

I am still researching and checking into it all, but I quickly noticed it is a very simple basic script. It is somewhat limited, however that is what it was made to be.

Somethings I like and somethings I don't about Wordpress.

I will continue researching and follow up on this when I more time to evaluate it more thoroughly.

I was asked by several at a forum I am fairly active in how to get into Google and the other popular search engines. Many of the members were having difficulty getting their sites indexed for some reason.

So I decided to create a simple .html site for the heck of it to see how fast I could get google to find it and index it.

Around 10:00 PM October 23, 2008
I uploaded all the .html files which was a total of 22 pages or so. They were created a few days before this. So I am not including the time to make them.

Around 10:30 PM October 23, 2008 I used an online sitemap creator to submit a sitemap.xml to search engines.

Around 10:45 PM October 23, 2008 I submitted my sitemap.xml to google, yahoo, and msn which I already have accounts at.

I go to bed and leave it at that for now.

The next day October 24, 2008

Around 4:00 PM October 24, 2008 I submit a link to digg, delicious, and several other popular social bookmarking sites.

By 5:00 PM October 24, 2008 I already see my post showing up for digg searching for the keyword/tags I used to submit to digg.

Around 8:00 PM October 24, 2008 I submit it to some directory sites using an automated free program, not sure if this is a good idea but I will try.

Around 10:00 PM October 24, 2008 I search for some blogs, most of which are wordpress that have high google pr ranks of 3-7 range. I commented on some posts that allow me to include my url(link).

By 12:30 AM October 25, 2008 I can now find my site by doing a google search.

Not all links are showing up in a google search yet, and yahoo, and msn are not showing much activity yet but that certainly didn't take long.

It did take a little work to submit a few of the above mentioned.

Now I will continue checking google, yahoo, and msn for more results and update this with anything that might be useful.

1:30 AM October 25, 2008 This post is actually showing in google already. Holy cow that was fast too.

2:00 AM October 25, 2008 I found some blogs with google pr 3-7 that I commented in. Most were wordpress blogs which allow me to include my link back to my site. I used a free blog searching program that searches and tells what the current google pr is for the site and blog page. Handy tool and free. This helps get backlinks to the new site.

? October 27, 2008 I now see my link in Yahoo too. It isn't indexed for searching that well yet, but at least it's there. MSN still don't know the site exists even after updating my sitemap.xml and pinging them with it. I think MSN needs a new bot. Maybe this is one of the reasons they wanted to buy Yahoo!!

For all of you visitors from the U.S. we are all very aware by now of the upcoming election. Without getting into which candidate is better or who's going to win and all that jazz, I will just be glad when it's all done and over. I am so sick and tired of all the TV commercials / Political Ads ripping on one another. Not just in the presidential race, but local too. Depending on where you live and what you have going on in your state maybe you don't have as many. In my particular state we also have 18 measures to vote on, some of which amend the state constitution and others are just annexation, and bond measure to raise money for different things usually with additional taxes.

I honestly wish the election was this Tuesday so we can be done with it all. I try to tune out all the negative ads, most of them I don't believe anyway.

One thing I have learned is there are still a lot of prejudice people in this country. Not just against blacks and other nationalities, but against women too. It is kind of sad that many will not vote for a particular candidate because they don't like blacks, or a woman vice president. I've heard a lot more racial remarks the past month than I have in years. Which I still don't get why it matters if you are a man or a woman, black, white, or other. How does one base their vote solely on this?

I just hope the darn voting area's/poll stations or whatever we are calling them do not have any major problems or confusion this time around. Hopefully everything goes nice and smooth.

Do your part...AND VOTE!!

I spent the last several days reading up on Google PageRanks and SEO, or Search Engine Optimization. Most of the sites I visited seemed to have a different tip and idea. There didn't seem to be one specific or perfect answer.

From what I gather from Google itself is that if one site links to your site, you need to link back. Kind of connecting the two sites in a manner I guess. They also state that if a site links to your site that has a PageRank of 5 or 6 you will get more credit I guess I will call it, than if a bunch of pages link to your site with only a PageRank of 1. Nobody seems to know exactally how much credit this might be.

I also read someone made a statement that if you register your domain for an extended amount of time, Google takes this into consideration. It said that if you can register your domain for 5 or even 10 years your PageRank will increase more, as you are expected to be around longer. I really have no idea if this is true or not. It's a good thought, but it's hard to believe this would matter a lot.

So in the mean time I will be playing around with links to sites that have PageRanks of 5+ and see what happens when the new Ranks are updated in a little less than 3 months from now.

I am still playing around with the whole SEO thing. I will save this for a future post. As well as how to increase traffic and Alexa ranks. I am getting pretty good at this part, but still experimenting a bit.

Why gameutopia?

I don't know I came up with it a long time ago. I thought it had a nice sound to it. No I'm not a gamer, but I used to repair game systems like nintendo, playstation, and xbox. So I guess this is partly were the game part comes from.

Then why the alien icon/avatar?

Good question. I've always had an interest in outer space. Aliens and UFO's have always been a little eerie and interesting to me. And I really like the icon/avatar, it's kind of creepy!!