I wanted to do this, and there was really no tutorial out there. So I looked into wordpress codex and found this. Basically what I want to do is organize wordpress blogroll into the way that I want. By default it is organized alphabetically. And sometimes it gives you a pain. Specially when your client demands otherwise.

By default your code looks like: <?php wp_list_bookmarks(); ?>

And that is what displays all the links in your sidebar. But what if you are using wordpress as a CMS. You want different links on different pages? Well then all you do is simply make different link categories, and assign a link category to each custom page.

So then you would post a code like: <?php wp_list_bookmarks(‘title_li=&category=2′); ?>

Replace the number above with the category id, and you will get the links sorted by different categories, but that still does not solve my problem. Because links inside the category is still organized alphabetically.

So basically then you would have to use Wordpress parameters.

You can have the link in the following orders:

Orderby

- ‘id’
- ‘url’
- ‘name’
- ‘target’
- ‘description’
- ‘owner’ – User who added bookmark through bookmarks Manager.
- ‘rating’
- ‘updated’
- ‘rel’ – bookmark relationship (XFN).
- ‘notes’
- ‘rss’
- ‘length’ – The length of the bookmark name, shortest to longest.
- ‘rand’ – Display bookmarks in random order.

So then you would have to do this:

<?php wp_list_bookmarks(‘title_li=&category=2&orderby=id’); ?>

Now the above will display the oldest id meaning Id 1 first and then on. So by default it is in ascending order. You can change it to Descending order by simply changing the code a bit.

<?php wp_list_bookmarks(‘title_li=&category=2&orderby=id&order=DESC’); ?>

Ok so now all you really have to do is add & and enter the parameter.

This way you can organize your wordpress blogroll the way you like.

Now there are tons of other ways you can organize your blogroll. For example, you skip one category. Or you don’t want one category to be included so you exclude etc etc.

To find those parameters, head over to Wordpress Codex

Follow the instructions that I showed you and you would get your wordpress blogrolls organized.

I got this question over the email. How to limit the number of Archive months displayed in Wordpress? It is pretty easy if you read the wordpress documentation. But I will save you some time and show you here. But why do you even need to bother with this?

Well there are some people who like to have archive links in the sidebar because they want their user to browse easily. Then some just want to show how old their blog really is. On the other hand some people absolutely think archives is waste of space on the sidebar. It is too long for older blogs. Well this snippet of code will let you make a compromise. Instead of showing monthly archives like it comes with wordpress default:

<h2>Archives</h2>
<ul>
<?php wp_get_archives(‘type=monthly’); ?>
</ul>

The above codes is built in default wordpress which is fine until the first few months or maybe upto a year. Then you start to get this set of useless links on your sidebar that not everyone visits, so you would have to simply edit the codes and change it like this:

<h2>Archives</h2>
<ul>
<?php wp_get_archives(‘type=monthly&limit=6′); ?>
</ul>

Now this code above will limit your number of archives month displayed on the sidebar to 6. Change the limit number as you please. Now the idea of this is that you have a separate archive page. That contains all the other years and what ever else you want. But the above codes you use to display on the sidebar.

I hope you guys find this useful.

Keywords, Keywords, Keywords. Everyone blogger is after them. So many of us just fill the title with keywords, it looks like a spammy title. So what do you do?

If you ask a SEO guru, they will say that Keywords are one of the most important aspect of the title. Because the keywords in the title make you rank high. If you rank high you will get traffic from the search engine. So if you don’t use keywords, you will be losing a lot of search engine traffic.

But what if no one reads your article. Then your keywords are peice of crap. So some say you should write and not even think about Search Engines. That way your writing will be pure, and you will attract readers. You have to be a bit naive to say that.

Here is what I think we should do.

Keywords are good and it really matters, but it is not the only thing. You have to pick the RIGHT keyword to get a decent amount of traffic. I mean you can rank high for one of the popular term, but will you get targetted traffic? Most likely not! So you have to pick the right keyword. What is the right keyword?

Right keywords are the keywords that you find in your stats. These keywords are the ones that are bringing you the most traffic. Then you use those keywords and ideas to write another post in that area. Trial and error is the name of the game. So if you don’t experiment, you lose automatically. Most of this keyword search is FREE. So do it. It takes a bit of your time, but it is worth it.

So now if you are picking keywords, I am sure there is a hype that he ranks for the keyword make money online. I want to write as many articles to rank at the top spot for make money online. Who cares about that keyword. It might be a popular keyword. But really and seriously how much traffic can you get from that one keyword? With the time and resources that you will spend to rank high for a popular keyword, It is not worth it. Specially when the user is not even the most targeted user. So the idea here is that you use the keywords that are more specific. More toward the niche that you want to target. Obviously it won’t bring as much traffic individually, but you can rank high for niche terms a lot easier, so rank high for tons of niche terms. Collectively, they will bring more traffic!

So now the idea of writing for people. You have to make your headline attractive to users while using these keywords. This is when your talent really comes in. I have told you guys multiple times, I use Digg main page articles to determine what attracts people. I use my own articles to see what brought me the most traffic. So use these until I come up with a few formula sentences for you guys. You can rank really high for any keyword, but if your title is not interesting, people will not click it. So make sure you write something that attracts people.

Most importantly, what ever your title is make sure that your post relates to that. So people know what is going on. Most search engines rank you with keywords and relevancy. Such as hyperlinks, and keywords they find in the text of your article. So you have to write a decent article to get decent ranking in search engines.

Ok lets get some reader interaction here. I decided to make a list of one of the best looking blogs on the internet. So I would need your help on that. I think together we can do it and get it done. But I know just because I want to do it, won’t make a difference to you. Here is what you will get if you help me.

I will post a link to your website in the post when I display all sort of links. It will be something like

Site XXXX nominated by YOU (With a Hyperlink to your site)

So now what are another advantage. I know some blogs out here have really good looking designs. So point out those. You can also point out your own good looking blogs as well.

So here is how you will submit the blogs. Post the urls below. You can post as many blogs that you like.

If you help me promote this idea of list. For example by writing a post on your blog. Simply send a trackback. And When I write a final post with the list. I will get your site mentioned in there.

So the idea is that we come up with at least 100 best looking blogs on the web if not more. I want it to be 500 but that depends on you guys now doesn’t it. So guys please please help me, and this will be one of the design inspiration you can later use.

We will be helping the blogging industry as more and more bloggers are entering the industry, this will be an inspirational list. For those new bloggers who haven’t had a custom design yet. You can look at these as you talk to your designers later and make a decision.

So lets get this show on the road.

Start commenting below with the links that you have.

As I promised this post to you guys here it is. In this post I will show you how I increased my normal traffic from 1100 uniques to 3600 uniques visitors per day on my blog in just five days. Before I begin this post, I will say that this was done after trying and seeing stumble results on my blog for previous months.

So prior to the past week, I was getting an average or 1100 unique visitors a day to Balkhis. Then last week my traffic went to an average of 3600 uniques a day for the 5 days starting Nov. 11 – Nov 15 2008. Now this was not pure luck! So How did I do it?

Step 1: Planning

I started this week with a planned post for each day. I looked up my stats for the past two months because my stumbleupon traffic was high. I looked for each keyword and analyzed what I had to write about. So I carefully picked out the articles that I wanted to write about. While most articles weren’t that spectacular. They were above average except for my 1800 subscriber post. I consider that one excellent. But the other ones were just above average. I worked really hard on the titles. I looked at the titles that make Digg’s Homepage. I looked at my other posts that got me a lot of traffic. Then I carefully chose the titles. I wrote articles that were useful to my readers. That was the planning that I did.

Step 2: Action

Now that I wrote the posts. I scheduled them to be posted on each day. But I posted them on different times which I experienced in the past to work best with social media. First was 7:30a.m EST. There was another one around 8:40 a.m EST. Then there were 10:20 a.m EST. I posted in between these times. Once the posts were up, I sent a message out on Plurk asking my friends to digg/stumble the post for me.

Step 3: Results

I have the traffic increase. Pretty simple eh.

Ah you guys don’t want to know what I did because I didn’t reveal much. Lets hear some of the dirty secrets that I used. The truth is there were none. I just wrote good titles. If you can work on anything, work on your titles. The next thing you need to worry about is content. Once you are done with writing your posts. Then go back to your titles and see if you can make it better by editing it.

I ran a lot of experiments on which posts work better on Balkhis. Here is a Case Study for That.

Now just search digg’s homepage and see which ones work better and the titles. Now the trick with stumble is you need to get about 5 – 10 stumbles. You can get it naturally, or you can buy it. I suggest you don’t go to people who say 5000 stumbles for $5 because those are crap. But if you know some people in communities, you can just have them stumble for just a few pennies.

I am willing to answer all questions that you might have. I will answer them, so feel free to post them in the comments. If it is something general, I will add them in the post