It’s time for another edition of Ask David. Don’t forget, you can get a free link back to your blog by asking me a question. It can be any question, personal or business related. This was a slow week. I only had a few questions.

Question #1 was asked by Joel from World of Joel. Hey David do you know a good plugin for putting polls into blogs?

The best Wordpress poll plugin I’ve used is called WP-Polls. You can see this plugin live in the sidebar of my new sports blog, Mugdish. It is super easy to install, and completely configured in the Wordpress Admin panel. Some of the features allow you to run more than one poll at once, as well as, allow users to vote more than once. It’s a really cool plugin, and in my opinion the best Poll plugin out there.

Question #2 was also asked by Joel. David do you have any recommendations of plugins for putting Yahoo or Google ads into a Wordpress Blog?

I have always used Adsense Deluxe when incorporating ads into my blog. Here are several of the features:

• Use simple HTML comments for embedding AdSense or Yahoo! Publisher Network ads in a WordPress post
• Choose from any number of ad styles and format on a post-by-post basis
• Globally change ad styles
• Selectively disable display of individual ad styles or all ads

In addition to Adsense Deluxe, there is another contextual ads plugin by Phil Hord. I’ve never used it before, so read up on it first.

Question #3 was asked by Richard from Blogger For Life. Would it be a crime to use your “Ask David” idea in my own blog. I love the Ask David batches, seems like a very smart way to interact with your readers.

I have no problems at all is anyone wants to use “Ask David” on their own blogs. Quite a few bloggers do what I do.

That’s it for this week’s edition of Ask David. If you want free link love, or are just dying to know what my favorite book is, then just ask.

It’s Monday again, and that means another installment of Ask David. I Only got a handful of questions in the past week, so this won’t take too long for me to write.

Jason asks: What are a few tips to SEO a Wordpress blog?

One of the best plugins to help SEO a wordpress blog is Optimal Title. This plugin changes the structure of your page titles. “Having your page information appear before your blog name in the title is advantageous because it provides more meaningful search engine results and browser bookmark names.”

Another reccommendation I have is changing the Permalinks structure in your Options menu. Out of the box, your wordpress URLs will look like yourblog.com/?p=13 or something. For SEO, it’s better to have your keywords in the URL. I use this custom structure: /%year%/%monthnum%/%postname%/ .  This puts the year/month/post-title in the URL.

Jeff from Fan Site Portal asks: What’s your favorite TV show?

It’s tough to pick just one favorite show. I’m a big fan of LOST. NO matter how crazy the show gets, I’m still addicted. I am also a fan of Family Guy, Seinfeld, Still Standing, and Man vs. Wild.

Matt from Fleeing The Social Scene asks: Do you seem to notice a trend of bloggers using turning points in their lives as fuel for posts? And if so, what do you think of it, and if its a good thing how do you suspect a person could maximize their return (either revenue or traffic) by using the tactic?

I haven’t noticed bloggers using turning points in their lives as fuel for posts so much that it is becoming a trend. A lot of bloggers use their blogs for personal use as well as business purposes, so it’s natural for them/us to talk about events happening in their lives.

I have posted about turning points in my blog (my engagement for example). I think it’s a good thing to post about these events if you have them. You could maximize these efforts by selling products related to your turning point event. I could have posted a link to a wedding invitations offer in one of my posts, and maybe I would have got 1 or 2 leads. You can also bring in traffic to your site that you would not normally target.

Other turning points in someone’s life could be having a child, graduating colleged, turning 40…If you post about these things, your blog will get indexed under those keywords and bring in a whole new wave of traffic you otherwise never would have had.

It’s Monday and time for the second installment of Ask David. I like the idea of kicking off every Monday with a run of last weeks questions sent to me. It’s a fun way to get things going, and doesn’t put too much stress on me by having to think up a blogging topic on a Manic Monday.

Richard asks: What am I watching on TV?

Well Richard, since you emailed me around 1:30 P.M., I’m guessing you’re watching a daytime soap opera? Perhaps Passions or Days of our Lives?

Cooliojones from My New Hustle asked 3 questions. Question 1: Do you think the market for making money online with blogs is saturated at this point? Why or why not?

I guess it depends on what niche you’re in. But really, if you have the traffic, then you can make money. Sure there are thousands of new blogs started everyday, but there are also millions of new internet users signing online everyday. If you can capture some of the traffic, then you can still make money online with blogs.

Question 2: What do you predict will be the next big thing on either the internet or blogging?

This is a tough question to answer. For blogging, maybe it’s live video blog broadcasts. Not many bloggers I know post videos of themselves, let alone a live streaming video.

As far as the internet goes…I have no idea what the next big thing is going to be. I’ve read that Stanford researchers want to completely scrap the internet and rebuild it entirely in 15 years. That would be something huge if it happens.

Question 3: Do you believe some of the figures that some bloggers post, as far as their income is concerned, or do you think some people inflate figures to make them seem more successful, and thus get more readers?

I’m sure there are some bloggers out there that exaggerate their traffic, feedcount, or earnings to impress people. However, numbers aren’t the only thing that attract readers to a blog… it’s the content too. With that said, I still think most bloggers are honest with their reports. There’s too much to risk by lying to your readers. 

If you would like to ask me a question and get a free link on my blog, simply click Ask David for more details.