Akismet

This plugin comes installed by default with WordPress.  When comments are submitted, this plugin with check them against a known list of spam comments that is updated constantly.  When allowing comments on your website or blog, this is a must have.

All in One SEO Pack

The SEO Pack allows you to edit the meta tags associated with your home page and every other page or post on your website.  To maximize your search engine visibility, I highly recommend this plugin.

BackWPup

This is one of the more recent plugin finds I have come across.  I am impressed with the number of available options for configuration when setting up a backup.  You can schedule a cron run for any time of day and can add as many backup jobs as you need.  You have the ability to backup not only the database, but your files as well.  This plugin can email you the backed up files, store them on your server, or send them to offsite storage, such as Amason S3.  Backups are an essential part of any website strategy, so make sure you don’t overlook this plugin if you are using WordPress.

WP-Minify

This plugin will take any Javascript or CSS files, combine them into a single file, and minify the code.  This helps to conserve bandwidth and server request overhead.  WP-Minify will speed up the load time of your website or blog.

WP-reCAPTCHA

CAPTCHA challenges are essential for controlling spam submissions, especially when allowing comments by anonymous users.  reCAPTCHA is my favorite version of the CAPTCHA challenge out there.  This plugin is very easy to use, for both the website owner and visitor.

Sitepoint

Sitepoint has several blog updates each day.  Each post is very well written and informative.  I have learned many new techniques from this blog. Sitepoint also has a large collection of development articles, an excellent forum community, and, in my opinion, the best written development books.  I am the proud owner of more than ten of their development books.

Visit the Sitepoint website

Smashing Magazine

The reason I really love to read Smashing Magazine is their articles are incredibly in depth and provide a great learning experience.  The amount of time spent and attention to detail in each article is the best I have seen in a blog.

Visit the Smashing Magazine website

Six Revisions

Six Revisions is one of those blog sites you can’t be disappointed with. They cover a variety of topics from development to design, freebies, and tutorials.  The articles are very well written and informative.

Visit the Six Revisions website

Viperchill

Not too long ago, I discovered Viperchill in a similar post such as this on another blog.  I visited the website and was immediately impressed with the quality and in depth coverage of the articles presented.  While it is a newer blog, the future for this blog is very bright

Visit the Viperchill website

Nettuts+

Nettus+ is another great blog I love to read.  Each week, I end up reading several articles and I am impressed with their choice of article content.  Not only is their content interesting to read, but you can learn quite a bit.

Visit the Nettuts+ website

Make It Readable

Writing for the web is different than writing for print or a book.  You have very little time to capture the attention of a reader.

Headings are one of the most important factors for engaging your audience, be in online or off.  Most readers like to scan the content on a page, and headings make it much easier for them to accomplish that task.  Headings help to break up your content into manageable chunks.

Highlighting important words and/or phrases helps to bring those sections of content to the attention of a reader as they scan the page.  Highlighting can be bold, italic, setting a background color, or changing the text color.  Make sure not to overuse highlighting and that it works well with the flow of the content in your article.

Writing in short, concise paragraphs will aid your readers scanning the page.  Short paragraphs are much easier to read on a computer monitor than long paragraphs.  You don’t want your readers to lose their place!

Lists can make your content more readable by drawing the reader’s attention to the bullet points you have setup.  A bulleted list has many uses and can especially be effective at the beginning of an article to point out what lies ahead in a condensed format.

Write Compelling Content

By compelling content, I mean write content people want to read.  Ask yourself, would you be interested in reading about what you just wrote?

Write about a topic you are interested in.  It is much easier to begin writing when you have an interest in the topic.  On the web, there are so many places where your readers can get their content.  Put your personality and emotion into your writing and you will be unique.

Proofread Your Content

While you don’t have to be a professional writer to develop content for the web, you should always proofread your content for mistakes.

Spelling and grammar are a freebee.  You should always check for spelling and grammar mistakes.  Constantly making these mistakes will make your writing difficult to read and people will lose interest in your work.

Make sure to avoid common mistakes.  There are many words with similar spelling, but very different meanings.  An example is there, their, and they’re.  Study the meanings behind common mistakes and you will be a better writer.

Having someone else read your work can be very beneficial.  Many times, another pair of eyes can catch mistakes you did not see, even if you have been over the piece several times.

• Establish Your Company as an Expert
• Business Differentiation
• Establish a Community
• Increase Website Traffic
• Search Engine Optimization Benefits
• Other Benefits

Establish Your Company as an Expert

As you write more and more blog posts about your company and industry, visitors will begin to see your company as an expert in your field.  Being known as an expert, or the expert, your company will gain more customers through your website and via referrals.  You will likely end up increasing your business significantly through blogging.

Business Differentiation

Do your competitors have a blog?  If not, then you will have a competitive advantage over them, and if so, you will no longer be at a disadvantage.  The blog is an excellent tool to differentiate yourself from your competitors, even if they already have a blog.  When done correctly, a blog can set your company apart from your competitors and increase your business significantly.

Establish a Community

By setting up a blog, you are also setting up a community on your website.  Assuming you will allow comments on your blog post, and you should, the visitors from to your site will be able to interact with you and other visitors.  The community is an aspect of social networking and will keep visitors returning to your website.

Through this community, you can communicate directly with customers and business partners.  You will be able to gain invaluable feedback on your products and/or services.  The feedback can help you to refine your product and/or service offerings before you take them to market, thereby reducing expenses.

Increase Website Traffic

By blogging, you will attract and retain new customers and business partners.  The offerings of your company will be spread virally by the existing community.  All this can lead to a substantial increase in traffic within a short period of time.

Search Engine Optimization Benefits

A blog has many features which make it very search engine friendly.  Most blogs are part of a Content Management System (CMS).  The underlying markup code required to display the page is created by the CMS, and is well-formed.  This makes the readability of your website much easier for search engines.

The content of a blog is often updated frequently.  The more often your blog is updated, the more often a search engine will visit and index your website pages.  Frequently updated could mean a couple times a week, or several times per day.

Other Benefits

Some other benefits of a blog are low cost, easy to setup, and no technical knowledge is required.  Hosting a blog on your own domain generally runs less than ten dollars a month.  For the benefits a blog provides, this is incredibly cheap.  A blog is easy to setup and requires no technical knowledge because it is generally part of a CMS system.  In many cases, it is as simple as installing, selecting a theme, and you’re ready to go.  When writing a page or a post, a visual editor will write the markup code for you as you write your entry.