I updated the plugins, backedup the database, the theme files and uploads.

After carefully reading WordPress.org’s upgrade instructions I decided to install the plugin maintenance mode to display a splash saying the blog was undergoing maintenance.

After uploading all the necessary files, I tried to visit the upgrade page http://example.com/wordpress/wp-admin/upgrade.php and guess what the maintenance mode plugin would no longer allow me to access anything except the maintenance splash page.

So if this happens to you the solution is to delete the plugin from your plugin folder.

Now I just have to get used to the new dashboard and layout.

There are many bloggers who write about celebrities. Some celebrity blogs concern only one celebrity while others write about anyone they consider a celebrity.

Which celebrities are the most popular?

Today I saw a list on Yahoo called “Winter’s Leading Stars“. The list contains the names of celebrities which Yahoo says were the most searched for in the last quarter. Before you go check out the list, grab a paper and write down the names of ten celebrities you think will be on it. Compare and be surprised.

Ready to Be a Celebrity Blogger

The yahoo list should give you enough material to start a blog targeting celebrities who are very popular. To get a head start check the search engines to find a celebrity where there is not too many competing blogs. A few well written articles and some good SEO should get you a top ten position the search engines pretty fast.

Dont’ forget to monetize your blog visit our recommended money makers for some ways to make money online.

Free WordPress themes

and don’t forget to check out our Free WordPress Report and our recommended money makers

Blogging to Make Money Online

In the last few weeks some pretty well know blogs have been put up for sale. Blogging Fingers and One Mans Goal among others.

Blogging Fingers sold for $6000 the blog was only being monetized since September and earned last $338. The blog has 10,689 visits, 19,958 page views, 7500+ unique visitors and 200 RSS subscribers. Which gives us that $0.80 was paid per unique visitor. Is that alot? In my opinion, not really. But if we look at $6000 divided by earnings we find the blog was sold for almost 18 times earnings. Not bad at all.

The auction on Sitepoint lasted only 2 hours. Going, going, gone!

How Did He Do It!

Matt Jones did a lot of research on blog sales and read many blog posts on how to get top dollar for your blog. But the main thing was he created a buzz about the sale. Matt blogged about his intention to sell and contacted other top bloggers asking them for advice. The top bloggers blogged about the sale, which created a lot of interest all around the blogosphere. The blog was 4 months old when sold.

Should You Sell Your Blog

Why not? You may need the money, then go for it. Maybe now is a good time. If your blog topic is hot and in the news you may be able to sell at a much higher price. Once its no longer in the news it’s history along with the high sales price. Other considerations that give a blog its value are Google Page Rank, Technorati and Alexa Rankings, Domain Name, Traffic and Income.

In the end the value of your blog is the amount the highest bidder is willing to pay. So auctioning your blog is a good way to earn top dollar. As some people will catch auction fever and get carried away pushing up the price.

Rinse and repeat if you are a courageous blogger.

For the newbies a Google Slap is when Google makes some changes in one or more of their programs such as: adwords, adsense or PageRank; that people realy find devastating. The Google Dance is the ups and downs of PageRank.

Why do so many people use the Google Search Engine? Possibly they like the results and all the other free services that they offer.

Google Rules

Google’s domination of the English speaking search engine market makes it an obligation for website owners to do their best to be indexed by Google. Being indexed is not enough, you must also appear in the “top ten listing” for your keyword if you want any significant amount of traffic.

How do some people do this the easy way? They buy text links on sites that Google has proclaimed as sites of VALUE. These sites have been chosen by Google and given a high Page Rank score. Page Rank values range from zero to 10. A site’s value is measured by a Google algorithm that counts the number of inbound links a site has from other sites taking into consideration their value.

Once every few months with no set time frame Google updates their perceived value of web sites. You can see this by using the Google Tool Bar or online at one of the websites that query the Google data centers.

Text Link Ads

Google has decided that paid text link ads are not allowed as it skews the results of the algorithm they use to measure Page Rank. They ask people to report paid links. On the form they have set up for reporting the guilty sites they mention:”Help us maintain the quality of Google search results.” It also says that this will help them develop a new algorithm to detect paid links.

In the last few days many web sites with a high Page Rank have seen their rankings go down by one or two points or worse even have received the ultimate punishment of being deindexed.

Not all the sites contained Text Link Ads or Paid Postings. So what is the reason behind the update that has shocked the world wide web? Only Google knows and they aren't telling. They give their usual neutral answer all is well what we did is to maintain the quality of our search results.

Reactions from the web vary: Google does not want competition for its ad business. Google is penalizing sites with paid text link ads etc….

In my opinion the results are still skewed. If PR was so important the top result for a keyword should have the highest PR. Do a few searches to check this out.

Google created and maintains their Page Rank system so they can do what they want with it.

Page Rank Skewed

In the past on one of my domains which I never got around to using. I put up a cms which I could not figure out. I let it sit there with just the home page and the classical Lorem Ipsum. Well, lo and behold I had a PR 5 on that domain which lasted through 2 updates. I just started using the domain recently and it did get some PR in this update. Doesn’t that shows us that Google still has a long way to go with their algorithm.

All of you that depend on text link ads will have to find a work around or the criteria of the advertisers will have to change.

Solution: The best things in life are free.

- Write quality content that people want to link to.

- Do everything possible to get more RSS subscribers.

- Make you sure your Meta Description and Keywords match your posts content. Don’t just put one keyword, make the description interesting and use multiple keywords. This should help your site get indexed for more keywords which should bring more traffic to your site.

- Don’t rely solely on advertising. The fact is if you have a large number of subscribers it means you are an authority and people will buy products you created or recommend.