Enabling weblog pings

Now that you have a Technorati account, let’s enable your Roller weblog so that it can ping Technorati automatically each time you post a new entry or edit a previously posted entry.

Time for action – enabling automatic pings in your weblog

This exercise will show you how to enable automatic pinging in your weblog, so that every time you post a new entry or update some entry you posted before, Technorati will receive a ping and will update your blog status:

1. Go to the Front Page: Weblog Settings tab in your web browser, click on the Preferences tab to see your weblog’s configuration page, and click on the Pings link:

   

2. The Configure Automatic Weblog Pings page will appear next. Scroll down the page until you locate the Technorati row under the Common Ping Targets section:
   
3. Click on Technorati’s Enable link to enable automatic pinging for your weblog, so it can send automatic pings to Technorati:
   
4. Click on the Send Ping Now button to test whether everything works correctly. Roller will show the following success message:

   

5. Now you just have to wait until Technorati grabs your blog’s most recent information, as shown in the following screenshot:
   

What just happened?

Now Technorati will keep your weblog information updated every time you post a new entry in your weblog. Once you register with an aggregator, it’s very easy to configure automatic pinging in Roller, as you saw in the previous exercise. Now all you need to do is configure all the pings you can to other aggregators and blog search engines, so that people from everywhere can see your weblog!

Have a go hero – configure more ping targets

Now that you learned how to configure automatic pings to Technorati for your Roller weblog, check out the other ping targets available in the Common Ping Targets list. Go on and enable all the ping targets that you can in order to promote your weblog in all the available blog search engines and aggregators.

You can also register with Digg, StumbleUpon, and the other popular aggregators/blog search engines and add new ping targets for them if you click on the Custom Ping Targets link in the Configure Automatic Weblog Pings page. So what are you waiting for? Go and promote your new Roller weblog!

Google webmaster tools

Now that you have a cool weblog, it would be great if the weblog would show up in Google every time someone searches for a subject related to the things you’re writing, don’t you think? That’s why Google invented the webmaster tools—a great resource to help you find out how your weblog is interacting with the Google bot. With these tools you can get detailed information about broken links, popular keywords, and basically, all the stuff you need to have a successful weblog!

Time for action – enabling Google webmaster tools

This exercise will show you how to configure Google webmaster tools for your Roller weblog, so you can start receiving important information about visitors and how your weblog interacts with Google:

1. Open your web browser and type https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools to go to the Google webmaster tools website:
   
2. If you created a Gmail account when installing Roller, you can use it to sign in to Google webmaster tools. Or you can create a new Gmail account in case you don’t have one already. Click on the Sign In button when ready.
3. The Google webmaster tools Home page will appear next. Click on the Add a Site button at the bottom to add your Roller weblog:
   
4. Now enter your weblog’s URL in the pop-up box and click on Continue:
   
5. Google will show you a Meta tag that you need to copy and paste in your Roller weblog. Select the meta tag, right-click on it, and click on Copy:
   
6. Now open a new tab in your web browser, log into your Roller weblog, and go to the Design tab. The Weblog Theme page will appear. Click on the Custom Theme option and then on the Update Theme button:
   
7. Roller will show the Successfully set theme to – custom message. Click on the Templates link and then select the Weblog template:
   
8. Scroll down the page until you locate the </head> HTML tag and paste the Google webmaster tools meta tag right before it, as shown in the following screenshot:
   
9. Scroll down the page until you locate the Save button and click on it. Roller will show the Template updated successfully message. Return to the Google webmaster tools tab in your web browser and click on the Verify button to verify your weblog:
   
10. If all goes well, Google will verify your weblog and take you to the Dashboard: