1. Manual Excerpts – There is a section when creating a post in which you can craft manual excerpts. This is what will appear on your home page when you post your content. If you are writing all the content for your blog yourself this is most likely the easiest option to run with.

2. The MORE button – There is a button that says “more” when you are creating a new post. When you click it, it will display some code that looks like this <)!--more--> minus the ) which I threw in there to display it on the page. Everything before the more tag will appear on your home page while the rest is only displayed after someone clicks on your “continue reading” button.

3. Plugins – I’ve run across a few plugins that will supposedly accomplish this task for you, HOWEVER, I stopped using them due to reasons that I can’t even remember.

4. Themeing – This is the route that I typically take and will work with MOST themes. Themes such as Atahulapa more than likely have the option to turn this function on somewhere deep within all their options. Under “Appearance” click on “Editor.” Now look for the line of code that reads < ?php the_content('Continue Reading »'); ?> and replace it with < ?php the_excerpt(); ?> as well as < a href="< ?php the_permalink(); ?>“>CONTINUE READING< /a> and you’re good to go. Feel free to replace continue reading with whatever text you want.

Enter FLOWPLAYER. Flowplayer is a jquery application created to present SWF videos online in a variety of different options. You can create playlists, autoload videos, insert still screen shots on top of videos, or even allow individuals to embed your video on their website. Throughout their website you’ll find various demos and coding examples on how to accomplish this.

Embedding / Sharing Plugin – http://flowplayer.org/demos/plugins/javascript/embed.html

Playlists – http://flowplayer.org/demos/plugins/javascript/playlist/horizontal.html

Various Other Demos / Functions – http://flowplayer.org/demos/index.html

Of course there are several Flowplayer modules available for download over at WordPress.org, but it may be better to simply install the files onto the website yourself and run the scripts your way as the plugins may only allow for certain effects to occur, thus leaving much to be desired.

You technically shouldn’t have to do much more than add a few lines of code to your header.php file in your theme (between the and area) that shows where you’ve placed your Flowplayer files. Once you have all that up and running you just need to switch over to the HTML version of your editor when creating a post or page (or maybe install PHPExec to run the code in PHP so WordPress doesn’t start removing lines of code you need for the application to run) and you’ll be adding videos fairly quickly.

The code itself is a series of javascript that you pretty much just need to copy and paste. You can control the look and feel of the video using external javascript files, which will then allow you to introduce branding to your player when someone embeds it on their website.

I’d advise uploading your SWF files through FTP as opposed to the Media Library as you’re less likely to suffer a time-out or have WordPress tell you the file is too large, but using FTP isn’t as scary as it sounds.

In terms of branding the videos you will have to pay Flowplayer for a license to embed your own logo on the videos. If you’re trying to make your videos go viral the fee is well worth it.

Oh and by the way, I’m currently not an affiliate with Flowplayer, I just like what they can do.

Creating your own WordPress theme ranges from fairly easy to fairly complex depending on how many options you want to give yourself within the Dashboard area. If you’re not too worried about the admin area now how the widget areas function, setting up a 3 column theme can be finished in an afternoon.

If you’ve ever worked with server side include files you’re already a step ahead of the game. WordPress themes require the following files at a minimum for your theme to work:
-footer.php
-functions.php
-header.php
-index.php
-page.php
-sidebar.php

Now if you want additional stylings you’ll need additional files such as comments.php, archives.php, etc…..

The best way to get started creating your own WP theme is by looking at one that has already been created. The more basic the theme the easier it’ll be for you to cut and paste from. No need to go crazy with tons of php functions if your php experience is lacking.

Start with the index.php file. Inside the index.php file you’ll see first a call out to < ?php get_header(); ? > which tells the system to go grab the header.php file when the page is rendered. For someone who uses .shtml or SSI they’ll recognize this as a similar function which retrieves a certain element (say header.html) and places it inside the page.

After the header the page now needs to grab the sidebar. The code will look something like ?php include (TEMPLATEPATH . ‘/sidebar1.php’); ?

From there you break down exactly where you want the content to go along with title, styling, etc. If you have a pre-built template going in Notepad, Dreamweaver, etc you want to replace certain sections of text such as TITLE with the correct php callout to render the title, the text area, etc. Again just copy and paste the sections you want (if you don’t want comments leave them out, don’t want the date leave it out, etc) into your page and you’re good to go.

Finally you’ll want to render the footer with a ?php get_footer(); ? command.

Now you need to create your header, footer, and page.php files. The page.php file directly affects any PAGE pages you create inside of WordPress. You can basically create multiple layouts for your Theme (say a salespage for one, a 3 column for another, maybe a wider video page) by only inserting the minimum required php into the header.php file and leaving the majority of the page coding inside the page.php and index.php files.

The functions.php file itself controls widgets as well as hooks to your dashboard. I’ve left it blank before and have seen zero issues with sidebars, and seem to be able to stack more sidebars by leaving it blank than by trying to include information within it.

As with most web design tasks most of the code has already been written for you, and you simply need to copy and paste it in applying your own classes and ID’s to style each individual element.

Yes, I am removing my backing for All in One SEO and now placing my backing behind this wonderful (and free) plugin. You get the same useful meta tag features for your posts and pages, as well as the option to insert global meta tags and descriptions right out of the box.

But what really sets this thing apart from any other plugin that I’ve seen thus far on the WordPress.org directory is the Deep Link Juggernaut. This one piece of technology will comb through all your new posts (yes sorry it won’t go through your old post and work its magic, at least I haven’t figured out how to do so yet anyways) and automatically link words or phrases that you have pre-selected to specific destinations of your choosing. Think about it like this, if I wanted the word poker to always link to say Poker money clips dot com then this plugin would do that for me (I didn’t really do that which is why you don’t see the link, that was just an example.) Or I could set a limit on the number of times it actually posts a link per page so I don’t look like some sort of spam farm.

You can do the same for your affiliate links as well. Let’s say that you’re promoting some sort of poker calculator and want the phrase “poker calculator” to link to your new affiliate link each and every time you use the phrase. Instead of having to do this manually SEO Ultimate will do it for you, leaving you more time to simply write content.

Just pick the words you want to use, set it up once and forget about it. Each time you add a new post to your website it’ll do all the work for you, just like magic. If used correctly you could easily increase your on page SEO strategy as well as a put a few extra bucks into your pocket at the same time.

If you’re having trouble finding it on your own here’s the link: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/seo-ultimate/

So far I have tested 4 games available – Governor of Poker, which is like Legend of Zelda where you interact with the community going from Hold em game to Holdem game – Pot Odds, which I tested against a calculator I wrote myself as well as the calculator over at pokertips.org, and the odds featured in pot odds are far too high to be correct  - Outs, which is a game where you have to answer how many outs you have to win the hand – and Odds, in which you select which hand is most likely to win the pot.

Governor of poker is a great game to provide your visitors if your visitors are looking to play some cards against the computer. To the best of my knowledge there is no online play where you can compete against your friends. The other three are great as educational tools to improve your knowledge of the game.

The two correct odds and outs games are going to be used to teach players how to make correct calls and understand the fundamentals of the game. Governor of Poker is simply to pass some time and beat your opponents when you get sick of playing Zynga poker.

By the way, you can also put these games in your side bar as well, as the plugin also works as a widget. This is a great plugin for any poker webmaster looking to put some poker games onto their website.

The first thing search engines look for are your keywords in your URL. The url is simply the file name of your website. This page’s url is http://howtobuildapokerwebsite.com/on-page-seo/. Now if you followed the instructions on making WordPress SEO friendly then this will automatically be done for you each and every time you create a post.

The next element is handled by the plugin All in One SEO. When you’re writing a new post or page you will have options at the bottom of your “Add New” posts and pages. Here you can type in your post or page’s title, a description and the keywords related to your post or page. Want the quick and easy way to do this? Simply copy the title you are using for your post and copy it into the title section of All in One SEO. For the description I typically just copy the first few sentences of my post. The keywords I choose I always put in the post tags section.

OK, so what makes a good title? A good title is targeting 2-3 keywords or phrases at a time. This post for example is targeting On Page SEO, and SEO. I’m also targeting poker seo at the same time as this website is after all about poker. Now in all seriousness this website stands little to no chance of ranking for my chosen keywords, at least not in it’s current state, but that’s OK, it’s a long term strategy. For now this is just being used as an example.

So how do you know what keywords to use that will actually generate traffic? You could spend a lot of money on tools to do the checking for you or you could always just use this Google Search Tool. This tool will tell you the number of searches per month for a specific keyword as well as the competition level and your expected Adwords cost if you decide to pay for traffic (whole other topic, one I won’t be covering on this website.) So now we know the competition levels for your selected keywords and can create a post or page around it.

So what makes a good description? Well, All in One SEO takes care of the length for you as search engines don’t like anything over 160 characters. Typically you should use your keywords or phrases somewhere within your description so the search engines know that is what your post is about.

What about keywords? To be honest, Google no longer uses this because of bad people on the internet trying to rank for words that aren’t even in their pages. Other search engines still do so it’s a good idea to use it anyway. As suggested whatever keywords you use should also be your post tags. Please only use keywords that are actually in your article.

Now how about the meat of the page, the content? Well, you want to write for people, not search engines first and foremost. If you write quality stuff that is readable people will tell their friends about your website and you’ll grow without the help of the SE’s. But being that you also want to be found online, you should use your keywords a few times throughout your post or page. Don’t overdo it though, as that’s bad. Rule of thumb is somewhere in the 2% to 4% range. If you wrote a 500 word post, that’d be something like 3-4 times for the phrase.

One quick word of warning on All in One SEO – the default setting uses both your posts title and your website’s title as the title that search engines see. If you want to rank for a poker related term and already have poker in your main site title it might be better to drop the term poker out all together. Example – Your website’s title is Poker Strategies and you want to write a post about poker tips. Best to just call it “Tips” as your title will then be “Tips | Poker Strategies.”

So let’s cover an imaginary post real quick so you have an idea of exactly what I’m talking about. Let’s write a post about “The Poker Brat Phil Hellmuth.” That’s the title. Keywords targeted? Poker, the poker brat, and Phil Hellmuth are the three, so that would also be our keywords and post tags. Your first sentence could be something along the lines of “The Poker Brat, known to his mom and dad as Phil Hellmuth Jr. is an eleven time world series bracelet winner and is sponsored by Ultimate Bet.” That’s 142 characters, which is perfect for the description as well as an opening sentence for the post. That’s basically all there is to on page search engine optimization.

To manage the content for your navigation click on the “Appearance” tab on your dashboard and select “Widgets.” You will now be taken to a screen showing you all of your available widgets.

On the right side of the page will be the available areas for you to display your widgets. Simply click on the title of the area you would like to show something on your page then drag the widget you would like to appear to that area.

Yours will be blank when you’re first starting off. Everything on the left is what you have available to use. The links widget allows you to show your links on every page of your website, categories displays your categories, archives shows your archives, pages shows your pages, etc.

The coolest one is the “text widget.” The text widget allows you to write whatever you want. If you want to show an image you’ll use this as well. If you would like to show an image in your text widget the code you would put in would be – <img src=”locationofyourimage” /> . Just simply copy and paste that into your text widget replacing location of your image with your image location. Leave the quotation marks where they are.

If you want to sell Amazon books, clickbank books, or any other “affiliate program” (you make money when someone clicks on it, or you get a percentage of the sale) you would use the text widget and simply copy and paste the code that was provided to you.

When you’re done with editing your widget simply click “Save.”

If you would like to do additional things with your navigation menu simply add a plugin that has the feature you are looking for.

So what are some examples of plugins? The plugin “All in One SEO” allows you to add pieces of information to your WordPress site that search engines such as Google will read. What winds up happening is you gain additional areas to write content at the bottom of your posts or pages, as well as an additional button on the left side of your dashboard to control what the search engines read. Other plugins range from allowing you to alter the way your categories are displayed, include photo galleries on your website, set up a contact form for your site, increase twitter followers, etc. We have a list of recommended plugins on the top of this website.

Now that we have that out of the way let’s get to how to add plugins to your website. On the dashboard scroll down to the section labeled “Plugins” on the left hand side. Click on it.

Now click on the tab labeled “Add New.”

You will now be given different options to find your plugin. If you downloaded a plugin already from the WordPress plugins website, you can simply click on “Upload” then find the zip file on your desktop and WordPress will install it for you. If you know the name of the plugin you are looking for you can search for it. If you just want to browse through what WordPress has available without visiting the WordPress site, simply click on either – Featured – Popular – Newest – Recently Updated.

Once you’ve found a plugin you like you’ll want to install it. On the right hand side of the screen click on “Install.”

A new window will pop up. Simply click on “Install Now.” Your plugin will be downloaded. Click “activate” and you’re pretty much done. Some plugins need to be configured. In the case of a photo gallery plugin, you simply need to add the photos you want to appear in the photo gallery.  Areas for the plugin configuration area to appear include the following tabs – “Plugins” – “Settings” or it’s own new tab.  With plugins such as a photo gallery, contact form, or link management you’ll also be given a certain code to add to a new page. It’ll look something like this [plugin code]. Simply copy that code into your page and click save and your photo gallery or contact form or link page will be live.

If you ever wish to deactivate a certain plugin simply click on “Installed” in your “Plugins” tab, find the plugin you would like to deactivate and click “deactivate” below the title of the plugin.

To both manage your currently installed themes or to add a new theme simply scroll down and click on “Appearance” on your WordPress Dashboard.

To add a new theme to your website simply click on “Add New Themes.” You will now be brought to a page with several different options, search, upload, featured, newest, and recently updated. From this page you can perform searches based on what you are looking for. Do you want a certain color theme? There’s a check box to search based on a certain color. Do you want your menu to be on the left? On the right? Both? You can search for this as well. There are also different options to allow you to find themes that allow you to use your own graphic at the top of the webpage.

Upload – This option is to be used when you have downloaded a WordPress theme either from Wordpress.org, a WordPress theme site, or created your own custom WordPress theme on one of the many “Create your own theme” websites. Whenever you download a theme it comes in zip format. Instead of having to unzip the file and use an FTP program to put the theme on your site (this can be a long process, taking up to 10 minutes for the larger themes) you simply locate the zip file on your computer and click Install Now. The theme is instantly uploaded, avoiding any need for an FTP program or unzipping.

Featured – Browse through the most popular WordPress.org themes.

Newest – Browse through the newest WordPress.org themes.

Recently Updated – As the name sounds, browse through WordPress.org themes that have been recently updated with new features.

Once you’ve found a theme that you like (click the preview button to see a test version of the theme) simply click the “Install” button.

After you click on install a new window will pop up. Click on “Install Now.”

After WordPress has installed the new theme for you simply click on “Activate” and your new theme will instantly be live on your website.

Once you have a few different themes on your website you may decide you like one theme better than another.

Under the “Appearance” tab select “Themes.” Every theme that is currently installed on your website can be viewed on this page. You have the options to “Activate” a theme, “preview” the theme, or “delete” a theme you don’t plan on ever using again.

A new tab may appear in your “Appearance” section if your theme has options that can be easily edited. Some may allow you to add your banner, others may be more advanced and allow you to control how large the left or right sides of your webpage are. Extremely customizable themes may include up to 300 features for you to change at the click of a button. Once you play around with a few themes you’ll start to get a feel for what you like and what you don’t like.

A word of caution for the new WordPress non html user. Do not click on editor and start messing with the WordPress code. Editor is used to make adjustments to your pages. The first page that will come up is your “CSS” code. CSS controls the colors, font sizes, widths, heights and much more on your site. A simple Google search for CSS codes will bring up a lot of info on CSS. A simple Google search for “html colors” will give you the six digit number for website colors. These can all be controlled in the “editor” section but should not be touched until you have an idea of what does what. If your starting out leave the editor alone and find a WordPress theme that suits your needs.