Each year, the WordPress core development team meets in person for a week to work together and discuss the vision for WordPress in the coming year. As annual events go, it’s easily my favorite. Don’t get me wrong, I love attending WordCamps and local WordPress meetups (which are awesome and you should try to attend if you are able), but at the core team meetup, the focus on working together and getting things done is unique, as is the experience of every person in the room being so highly qualified. This year, instead of just planning a core team meetup, I’m aiming a little higher and shooting for a full-on contributor/community summit.

Core code isn’t the only way to contribute to the WordPress project. We have an active theme review team, support forum volunteers, people writing documentation, plugin managers, community event organizers, translators, and more. The teams have been siloed for too long, so we’ve recently begun the process of bringing them together by having teams elect representatives to facilitate more communication between the contributor groups. These reps will form the nucleus of the contributor summit now being planned for a long weekend at the end of October in Tybee Island, GA. This is completely different from a WordCamp. It will be a combination of co-working, unconference, and discussions among the project leaders, and participation will be by invitation.

In addition to bringing together the active contributor team reps to work together, I think it’s important to include community members who don’t fall into that category (at least not yet!). Successful WordPress-based business, authors of popular plugins and themes, and people using WordPress in unexpected but intriguing ways should have a place at the table, too. That said, part of the magic of the core team meetup is the small size; it allows every voice not only to be heard, but to engage. Since this is my first attempt at bringing together so many groups and points of view, I want to try and keep it small enough to retain that personal atmosphere while at the same time ensuring that the best possible mix of people and businesses in the WordPress ecosystem is represented. This is where you come in!

Taking a cue from events with limited availability like AdaCamp (attendance) and the jQuery conference (speaker roster), I want you to nominate people and/or WordPress-based businesses to participate in the summit. Yes, you can nominate yourself.* You can nominate up to 10 additional people — be prepared to provide URLs and the reason you think they should participate. You can also nominate up to 10 WordPress-based businesses without naming individual people, so if there’s a theme or hosting company (for example) that you think should be there, you don’t need to go looking for employee names. This nomination process will hopefully ensure that we don’t overlook someone who is making a difference in our community when it comes time to issue invitations.

Nominations will be open for a week, after which the survey will be closed and the process of analyzing the results** will begin. The nominations process will lead to invitations in June, confirmations in July, planning in August and September, and the summit itself in October. Hopefully we can stream and/or record some of the activity to share online at WordPress.tv. Additional invitations may be extended up until the event if there are people/businesses that become more active in the community. If you’re thinking to yourself that maybe now’s the perfect time to start contributing time to the WordPress project, good thinking! In the meantime, if you want to weigh in, fill in the community summit nomination form. Thanks, and wish us luck!

* Nominating yourself: Do nominate yourself if you fall into one of the categories described in the post above, or if you believe that you have a unique point of view. Please do not nominate yourself if you just think it would be cool to hang out with this group. This is a working event, and everyone is expected to bring something special to the table.

** I (and/or a helpful community volunteer) will sift through the nominations and compile a shortlist of the most-nominated people/businesses and the most intriguing underdogs. This list will be reviewed by the summit planning committee (made up of team reps) to create the invitation list.

Original post by Jane Wells

How to Obtain Steady Blog Traffic

Blogging is simple but getting steady traffic to your blog can be one of the hardest things you need to do and without traffic then there isn’t much point in even blogging because noone is seeing what you’re writing. If you want to obtain steady traffic then how hard you work the first couple months will determine everything, and basically if you work hard and give your blog time to establish itself then it will. It takes a little while before you’ll begin getting search engine rankings and this is what you’re aiming for as search engine traffic is by far the steadiest stream you’ll find. To rank in the search engines though you’ll need lots of links pointing to your blog and this can be time consuming. One thing that you should do is make sure you try spreading out the links you build by doing different marketing techniques.

In the beginning you do lots of social bookmarking for your blog and also as many Ezine submissions that you possibly can submit. These submissions will help you out tremendously with getting your blog indexed and into the search engine rankings. Usually you’ll need a solid few months before ranking steadily on the first page for any main keywords but longtail keywords can be obtained weeks after starting your blog.

The key is to build constant and natural links to your blog, meaning you shouldn’t submit to 100 directories one day and then none the rest of the week. Instead try submitting to 15 directories daily and it will seem like a lot more natural progression in the eyes of Google.

Social bookmarking will help to get your site indexed also and this also helps bring traffic to your blog. If you post daily and submit it to social bookmarking sites then you’ll have some traffic from there everyday but it won’t be that targeted or profitable of traffic.

The profitable traffic is the search engine traffic and once that starts coming into your blog in full effect then you’ll stand a lot better chance of having good steady profitable traffic on your blog. You need to ensure you offer your visitors valuable content though or else you won’t stand much of a chance when it comes to keeping your readers on your blog.

Return visitors are what keeps blogs alive and running and to have return visitors come to your blog you need to offer information that they are looking for. To do this you need to research your niche and then write content that is valuable to the people reading it. If you have a sports blog don’t write about space travel on it as most likely nobody there is interested in that topic. Instead serve up the hottest sports highlights from around the world everyday and you’ll soon see lots of traffic coming into your blog. The key is knowing your niche and then capitalizing on the information learned.

How to Promote Your Blog

There are tons of methods to promote your blog and you shouldn’t limit yourself to only a few of these methods because to ensure a successful blog you need to utilize all of them. If you’re new to blogging then you don’t need to worry about using all the methods listed below right away but as time allows you should start implementing the methods listed below. Everyone says content is king, which is true because you’ll need awesome content in order to keep your visitors but without promoting your blog properly nobody will find your content that you’ve spent time writing. This is why I believe promotion is just as vital as the content you write because without people reading the content there is no point in writing it. I think many new bloggers get lost in the hype of writing killer content and then lose their way once they realize they have no traffic coming to the blog. You should make sure you have a good ten to twenty posts of solid content before promoting your blog, but once you hit that number of posts you need to start promoting right away, and frankly I begin using some of the methods below right from the get-go. The methods and techniques I list below will all be beneficial to your blog and you should work on implementing them as soon as possible.

Social Bookmarking

Bloggers have the ability to utilize social bookmarking everyday and if you want traffic you need to use them. I use them everyday when I post to my blogs and it doesn’t take long at all. There are hundreds of these social bookmarking sites to use, but since time is an issue for bloggers you should only use a handful of them on a daily basis. I typically use StumbleUpon, Digg, Reddit, Propeller and BlogsVine which only takes me about three minutes a day to submit my posts to. I’ve gotten over a thousand unique visitors some days from social bookmarking sites and you always get traffic coming from the sites for the life of your blog which is why I love using this method. It takes a few minutes a day to ensure that you get some daily traffic coming from these sites and although some people say that the traffic isn’t targeted I know for a fact that I’ve had some sales from social bookmarking in the past.

Article Marketing

Not only do bloggers need to write posts for their blog, but they also need to distribute articles across the internet so that people can find their blog. There are thousands of websites where you can post articles to and there are lots of great lists on the internet. If you only use one directory to submit your articles to then make sure it’s EzineArticles as they bring the most traffic to your blog. You simply write a 250+ word article and add your links at the bottom and submit it to the site. They have some guidelines which you need to follow, but there simple and can be found on their website. If you have time you should really be submitting articles on a daily basis to different directories. You shouldn’t limit yourself to only EzineArticles but if time only allows you to use one directory then use that one. If you have time though then submit articles to new directories each day. Typically I try submitting one article to EzineArticles and one article to another directory. I always switch the second directory around everyday so that I’m gaining links and exposure on different sites.

Buying Links & Blog Posts

Bloggers often buy links and blog posts to boost their search engine rankings and to gain exposure. Buying these types of advertising is beneficial as long as you’re buying the links on sites or blogs that don’t have tons of links and appear like a link farm. If you can find good sites and blogs to buy posts or links on then you should analyze the blog and see if it’s worth it. If the blog has a high page rank and a good authority in Google then buying a link or blog post would be great for boosting your search engine rankings which is ideal. Depending on how well the blog or site is known on the internet will reflect the cost, but you can find many great deals on the internet for links and blog posts. The main thing here is to remember to only buy links and posts on relevant sites or blogs meaning on the same topic as your blog, and you also need to ensure that the site or blog you’re buying a link or post on isn’t full of links.

There are still tons of other methods you can use to promote your blog but following these simple techniques will ensure you maintain a steady stream of traffic to your blog. Once you get into a routine of completing all of the above then you can start looking for other methods of promotion which can be anything that draws traffic to your blog. You need to get creative with your techniques to see maximum benefit and the more you do that your competitor doesn’t, the better chance you have of becoming more successful.

Less bugs, more polish, the same beta disclaimers. Download, test, report bugs. Thanks much. /ryan #thewholebrevitything

Original post by Ryan Boren

How to Retain Your Blog Readership

There are countless articles published on the internet talking about how you can build traffic to your blog and there seems to be an unlimited amount of resources to building your traffic. The only problem is that most of the traffic generation techniques that are being taught don’t send return visitors. I simply mean that you may get traffic by completing certain things like article marketing, social bookmarking and link building but the traffic typically won’t sustain and everyday you’ll need to regain the traffic. The point of blogging is to have a solid readership that comes back to your blog on a daily basis, and this is when you can start making good money with your blog so you need to do your best at retaining visitors. There are some great methods at retaining your visitors and building a readership and I’m going to briefly talk about some of these methods with you right now.

Unique Themes

You should make sure that your blog uses a unique theme, simply because too many people use the free blog themes and they don’t stand out anymore. If you use a unique theme that is attractive you can build your blogs branding while also gaining a solid readership. People are also more inclined to read blogs that are designed nicely according to surveys recently conducted. You can buy a coded WordPress theme for under $200 nowadays on many webmaster forums so the investment isn’t going to make you reach too deeply into your pockets.

Great Content

An attractive theme isn’t going to be the only thing you need in order to stand out from the rest of the blogging world and you’re going to need to put a lot of effort into your content as well. Writing blog posts is an ongoing process that you need to do everyday, but you need to make sure that you do in fact post daily so that when you begin to grow a readership they have content to read that is fresh. The search engines also love content so the more you post on your blog with useful content the more search engine placements you’ll begin ranking for.

RSS Feed Subscriber

You need to make sure you utilize the RSS feed subscriber which allows your readers to read your blog from a number of different blog readers on the internet. The more RSS feed subscribers you have the better because this means that people want to keep your blog nearby so they can continue reading it. You should have a widget in your header or sidebar that allows all of your readers to join your RSS feed and there is also a plug-in that you should use. The plug-in will post a short line at the bottom of each of your blog posts automatically that asks the reader to join your RSS feed and gives them the link to join. This is a great way at reminding people about your RSS feed and can result in more readership.

As you can tell there are quite a few methods that you can use to make your readership stick around and keep coming back to your blog. You should also keep reading the internet for other great sources because there are more ways to retain your blog readership other then the ones I listed above. You should also be trying to make your blog more enjoyable for the readers because after all the success of your blog depends solely on the readers.

How you can Create a Blog Network on your Own

Blog networks have the potential of making thousands of dollars each month and although you use to not be able to run your own network, you now have the possibility to do so. All of the blog networks that have been around the past couple of years all had a large amount of employees to create content and build links. Now a single person has the chance to own and operate there own blog network without having to spend any money outsourcing work. Your blogs won’t be as good as the blog networks generating millions a year, but you could earn thousands a month with very little overhead.

In order to run your own blog network you’ll need to spend some money initially on your domains, hosting and tools. The investment to start a blog network is cheap for most, but if you’re just starting out in the online world then this might not be for you. I suggest that you’re familiar with blogging and everything else that goes along with running a blog. If you expect to run your own blog network then you’ll already need to possess certain internet marketing skills. If you feel you have the experience and time to run a blog network then continue reading through this article to see the initial investment you’ll need to spend.

The first two things you need are domains and a hosting plan. The good thing about blogs is that they don’t take much hosting space up on your hosting so you don’t need a large plan. You will need to have different C-Class IP’s though in order to keep out of the eyes of Google. I personally use the SEOHosting plan which gives me 5 C-Class IP’s for $35 per month. As I increase my network they also allow you to upgrade your hosting account without having to change anything which is a feature I liked.

Once you have your domains and hosting ready then you will need to invest in the tools to run your blog network. If you don’t plan on outsourcing then most of your blogs will most likely not be able to be unique content as it’s impossible for you to write for tons of blogs everyday. To avoid having to update each blog yourself you can use an RSS Scraper which will automatically post to your blogs from the feeds you’ve uploaded. For instance you can upload the Yahoo Sports RSS feed into your blog and then every time there is a new post on the Yahoo Sports section it will be posted on your blog. This way your blogs are constantly getting content. If you’re worried about the content not being unique then you should get BlogSlammer which makes the content unique. The content isn’t very easy to read though so you might not like the results. If you don’t like the rewritten content from BlogSlammer then you should get the WordPress Unique Content Plug-In. It adds HTML code to your posts that isn’t seen on the blog, but the search engines see it and it makes all the content unique. This way your readers can read real content and you’ll still be indexed at the same time.

Other tool you should consider getting to make your life a lot easier is the Social Bookmarking Demon software tool and also the Article Post Robot software tool. SBD allows you to quickly and effortlessly submit your content into many of the popular social bookmarking plug-ins. APR lets you submit articles to hundreds of directories and saves you a ton of time.

You don’t need these tools right away, but if you want the quickest results then you should spend the money to get the few tools listed above. As you begin to make money you should invest a certain percentage of this profits into more software to run your network. You always want to work smarter and not harder as a webmaster which is why you need the right software. So if you were considering starting your own blog network now you have the knowledge you need to get the project underway.

How to become a webmaster? (Part – 1)

Before you move any further, you should be registering at some webmaster forums. I’d recommend you to register at the top 2-3 webmaster forums rather than registering at just one. But why to register at those sites? I know you’ll be asking that question.

Webmaster forums are sites where you’ll find experienced webmasters. What are they doing there? They’ll be either promoting their business, or simply helping others. By helping others, their reputation is gonna increase, and they will be also getting some other benefits. We’ll discuss those things some other day.

So webmaster forums are just for experienced webmasters? Nope, not like that. There you’ll see people like you as well. They’ll be either learning things from other webmasters or practicing what they have learned. You can start by clearing your doubts. You’ll get surprised when you see, even new members replying to your queries. That’s because they might have already got answers to such questions from experienced webmasters out there when they asked those kinda questions earlier, when they were new there.

Don’t feel shy to ask questions. The questions that you might be feeling to ask may sound simple even for you. But, if you are having doubts, then you should ask them and clear those doubts the same moment. Only then, you’ll be able to become a successful webmaster. One thing to note is that – don’t spam the forum with questions that are already asked by others. Before you ask questions, its recommended to search for answers using the search facility provided in the forum. And even after visiting the threads started by others, if you’re still having doubts, then go ahead and clear your doubts by starting a new thread. Again, make sure that you are starting threads at the right place. There will be different sections in the site for discussing different topics like programming, business, blogging, search engines, marketing, search engine optimization etc. There will be a general section as well, where you’ll be able to ask general questions that don’t fit under any other section.

That’s all for now. Check out the next part for more.

WordPress 3.3.2 is available now and is a security update for all previous versions.

Three external libraries included in WordPress received security updates:

• Plupload (version 1.5.4), which WordPress uses for uploading media.
• SWFUpload, which WordPress previously used for uploading media, and may still be in use by plugins.
• SWFObject, which WordPress previously used to embed Flash content, and may still be in use by plugins and themes.

Thanks to Neal Poole and Nathan Partlan for responsibly disclosing the bugs in Plupload and SWFUpload, and Szymon Gruszecki for a separate bug in SWFUpload.

WordPress 3.3.2 also addresses:

• Limited privilege escalation where a site administrator could deactivate network-wide plugins when running a WordPress network under particular circumstances, disclosed by Jon Cave of our WordPress core security team, and Adam Backstrom.
• Cross-site scripting vulnerability when making URLs clickable, by Jon Cave.
• Cross-site scripting vulnerabilities in redirects after posting comments in older browsers, and when filtering URLs. Thanks to Mauro Gentile for responsibly disclosing these issues to the security team.

These issues were fixed by the WordPress core security team. Five other bugs were also fixed in version 3.3.2. Consult the change log for more details.

Download WordPress 3.3.2 or update now from the Dashboard → Updates menu in your site’s admin area.

WordPress 3.4 Beta 3 also available

Our development of WordPress 3.4 development continues. Today we are proud to release Beta 3 for testing. Nearly 90 changes have been made since Beta 2, released 9 days ago. (We are aiming for a beta every week.)

This is still beta software, so we don’t recommend that you use it on production sites. But if you’re a plugin developer, a theme developer, or a site administrator, you should be running this on your test environments and reporting any bugs you find. (See the known issues here.) If you’re a WordPress user who wants to open your presents early, take advantage of WordPress’s famous 5-minute install and spin up a secondary test site. Let us know what you think!

Version 3.4 Beta 3 includes all of the fixes included in version 3.3.2. Download WordPress 3.4 Beta 3 or use the WordPress Beta Tester plugin.

Original post by Andrew Nacin

How to become a webmaster? (Part – 2)

In the first part of our “how to become a webmaster” series, we’ve discussed about the first step that you should be taking in order to become a successful webmaster. It was about registering in webmaster forums, where you’ll be learning the basics. It is to be understood that, no one is born as an expert, people become experts after practicing what they have learned. But for practicing something, you should be first of all learning something. With nothing in your brain, you won’t get anywhere. So, as we have mentioned in the first part, the key to success is to learn the basics and then practice it. In this part we’ll be concentrating on this topic.

If you want to become a webmaster, then one of the best place where you’ll be getting the right coaching is from webmaster forums. You won’t have to spend any money for it. But you’ll have to spend something else. That’s nothing, but time. Only if you are having time to spend at webmaster forums, you’ll be learning something from there. You won’t be able to learn everything the very first day. You may have to spend days or even months. That will depend on the skills that you are with, at the moment. If you know something about webmasters and what they does, then things will be easy for you. On the other hand, if you know nothing, then it’ll take you some time to learn the basics. Again, nothing is impossible, if you are with the determination to learn it at any cost, then time is the only thing that should be with you. And you’ll learn everything in no time. No doubt about it.

So that’s it, there is no need to make any investment, there is no need to hire any personal coach to teach you things, there is no need to attend any classes neither. All you have to do is – make yourself prepared to spend some time everyday, for learning the basic things at webmaster forums. This way, in no time, you’ll be learning the basics of becoming a webmaster.

We’ll throw more light on this topic in the next part of our “how to become a webmaster” series. So, stay tuned.

Howdy, folks! Another week, another beta. Since we released Beta 1 last week, we’ve committed more than 60 bug fixes and feature adjustments based on testing and feedback. If you’ve been testing Beta 1, please update to Beta 2 to make sure things are still working for you. If you are a theme or plugin author and have not yet started testing your code against the 3.4 beta, now’s the perfect time to start. And as always, if you find any bugs, let us know! Full details on testing and bug reporting can be found in last week’s Beta 1 post.

Download WordPress 3.4 Beta 2

Original post by Jane Wells