Tag Archives | blogs

WordPress 2.6 Rocks

Jul/16 in Web Development Tutorials

WordPress 2.6 Released!Thus far I have to say that WordPress 2.6 looks like a pretty awesome upgrade.  Just did a few upgrades myself, but haven’t had time yet to play with everything that is new…

I’m happy to announce that version 2.6 of WordPress.org is now available, almost a month ahead schedule. Version 2.6 “Tyner,” named for jazz pianist McCoy Tyner, contains a number of new features that make WordPress a more powerful CMS: you can now track changes to every post and page and easily post from wherever you are on the web, plus there are dozens of incremental improvements to the features introduced in version 2.5.

Also here are some of the improvements, updates and upgrades:

  • Word count! Never guess how many words are in your post anymore.
  • Image captions, so you can add sweet captions like Political Ticker does under your images.
  • Bulk management of plugins.
  • A completely revamped image control to allow for easier inserting, floating, and resizing. It’s now fully integrated with the WYSIWYG.
  • Drag-and-drop reordering of Galleries.
  • Plugin update notification bubble.
  • Customizable default avatars.
  • You can now upload media when in full-screen mode.
  • Remote publishing via XML-RPC and APP is now secure (off) by default, but you can turn it on easily through the options screen.
  • Full SSL support in the core, and the ability to force SSL for security.
  • You can now have many thousands of pages or categories with no interface issues.
  • Ability to move your wp-config file and wp-content directories to a custom location, for “clean” SVN checkouts.
  • Select a range of checkboxes with “shift-click.”
  • You can toggle between the Flash uploader and the classic one.
  • A number of proactive security enhancements, including cookies and database interactions.
  • Stronger better faster versions of TinyMCE, jQuery, and jQuery UI.
  • Version 2.6 fixes approximately 194 bugs.

You can read more (and watch a video tour) from WordPress.org about it here:
http://wordpress.org/development/2008/07/wordpress-26-tyner/

You can download WordPress 2.6 here:
http://wordpress.org/download/

Also looks like somebody has already found the easter egg in it too.

For those of you using cPanel/Fantastico to manage your install and upgrades, the upgrade for you might not come for a couple of more weeks.  Are you excited about WordPress 2.6 yet?

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"Special" Secret Paste in Windows Live Writer

Jul/07 in Writing Advice

It is amazing the keyboard combos you will run into when your fingers stumble over the keyboard trying to do something you didn’t even have in mind.  Much like me, I doubt you knew either that Windows Live Writer had a "special" paste mode?

paste-special-wlw

To activate it, just press Ctrl+Shift+V.  Doing so will give you the option to remove all the HTML formatting but preserve the hyperlinks and images.  They also have a thinned HTML option which will preserve the font sizes and text alignments but strips out all the extra CSS beyond that point.  Quick tip for all you fellow Windows Live Writer lovers out there!

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Free Hosting eBook is Done!

Apr/26 in Personal, Web Hosting

I told you about my plans a project just a few days back, and now I have just finished things up.  The Best of the Web Hosting Show Guides is a collection of some of the most popular guides I have posted and talked about here on the Web Hosting Show podcast.

Unlike other eBook deals, you get an extra perk with this setup.  You can download both the digital eBook version, or head over the the official page for it and pick up all five chapters as audio downloads too.  I wanted to give to you the best of both worlds.  The topics covered in the eBook cover all aspects of the web hosting world:

  • Moving from Web Host to Web Host
  • Getting going with your own Ecommerce Store Online
  • How to Find a Job in the Web Hosting Industry
  • Best Methods and Tips for Setting up a New Blog
  • The Ever Popular Handy Guide to Domain Names

Download the PDF and let me know what you think.  Also as far as distribution goes, please feel free to share the link to download it to anybody and everybody you know.  This is a project of mine I have been working on getting together for some time now and I want everybody to know it is free of charge. 

To tune in to the Web Hosting Show, be sure to check out WebHostingShow.com, subscribe to the RSS feed or add us to your iTunes podcast subscriptions.

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Become a Blogging Success (advice from the CyberNet)

Apr/11 in Interviews

One of the popular blogs out there that I really enjoy a lot is CyberNet. They always have fresh content, good reviews and reminds me of a younger and more influential Lockergnome.com. The minds behind the project – Ryan and Ashley are brilliant at what they do and have had a lot of success along the way. Then it came to me, who better to ask for advice about taking your blog to the next level than them? E-mails were sent, virtual handshakes were made and a conversation was had…

When did you know it was time to really put your all into CyberNet and try to do your best at making some money with it? Was it your goal from day one or was it something that you decided to do later on down the road?

Ryan: Our goal from day one wasn’t to make money; CyberNet was originally started as a hobby. Our goal was to do our best and put our all into it, and to write great content and tutorials that you wouldn’t find on many other sites out there. I guess you could say we were focused on quality and not quantity. We were actually surprised at the time it took to maintain a site with quality articles and we realized if we wanted to continue to provide the content, we had to find a way to make money with it. It wasn’t until about a year ago that Ashley and I both started working on CyberNet full-time.

Out of all of the money making methods out there today, which has been the most and least successful for you thus far?

Continue Reading →

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WordPress Help, After the Install

Feb/25 in Web Development Tutorials

wordpress-logo It isn’t a big secret that I love WordPress and feel like it could be used for just about any project out there, blog or not. There are a lot of guides out there on how to install WordPress, but not many tell you what to do after you get it on the server. Now everybody has their own methods after a WordPress install of how to configure things but this is what I do.

Configure the Basic Options

First, login to your WordPress admin interface and click on Options > General and setup the General Options. Need to check and make sure your blog title and your addresses are correct. Next go to Options > Discussions and edit your comment and trackback settings. I like to make sure I get e-mailed when anybody leaves a comments, and I like for comments to be filtered through me before they get posted. With the plugins I’ll give you in a few hopefully we will get rid of the need for you to moderate too many.

Grab Your “Must Have” WordPress Plugins

Here are the WordPress plugins I like to use on the basic install of any WordPress powered site:

Update Your Permalinks for SEO Friendliness

Now you need to go back into Options > Permalinks and choose the Date and name based option then hit the Update Permalink Structure button. If your .htaccess file is set to be writable, then it should update it automatically. If not, then you can copy and paste the permalink code from WordPress into your .htaccess file.

Past this point, you may want to go check the rest of your settings, add a blogroll and configure your theme. I think I have gotten most of the important steps out of the way. If you stumble into any problems always remember to go check WordPress.org. They have tons of information on installs, backing up, upgrading and more.

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Feed Suggestions from T to Z

Jan/29 in Hot Web Topics, Resources

This is my last list of suggestions of web sites you should be subscribed to.

The list is now complete, well – at least for the current date and time. I am always subscribing to new content so I am sure more suggestions for web sites you should check out are coming in the near future.

The Wrong Advices – Lots of tech news, blogging and WordPress stuff to be had here. Great alternative view and look at a lot of this stuff if your tired of the same old crap from your A list collection of bloggers.

Worthy Example Link? Blogging is harder than you think

thepinkc – Ellie’s work here is totally fabulous, and I would have to say she might be one of the best under appreciated feeds in my entire list of web sites I subscribe to. Lots of tech, advice and optimization stuff here to enjoy.

Worthy Example Link? Get organized with Tidy Start Menu

Unclutterer – Who likes to be cluttered? I know I don’t. I take great pride in my organizational skill but it would be nowhere without sites like Unclutterer which are as inspiring as you can get to get out there and clean the garage, closet or maybe even just your desk.

Worth Example Link? Unclutter Your Online Passwords

Weblog Tools Collection – Once I started becoming such a big fan of WordPress this is one site I had to start coming back to again and again because they had more blogging goodies than most. From themes to plugins and even advice tons of fun to be had.

Worthy Example Link? Other Side Of Permalinks

Thanks goes out to these 4 excellent top of the line web sites and everybody else I have suggested out there since last month. Without you these lists would have been a lot of empty links.

Checkout the Entire Feed Suggestion Series!

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Feed Suggestions from A to C?

Dec/27 in Hot Web Topics

Always having talked about being a big fan of others work more so than my own, I wanted to spend some time plugging those who deserve to be plugged. When looking around to for source to plug from my feed subscription list looked like a good place to start.

Asa Dotzler – Known as the community coordinator for several Mozilla projects, Asa is a guy that we can all relate to. Love Firefox or hate it, I would suggest you subscribe either way. You are always bound to find something of interest here.

Worthy Example Post: IE8

bLaugh – The un-official comic of the blogosphere has gotten a little less busy in the past few months, but there is still plenty of awesome comics if your are a tech or Internet fan. One of the few Online comics I actually subscribe to, just wish there were more updates.

Worthy Example Post: Huge Software Sale

Blog on a Stick – This blog belongs to one of the best Firefox theme designers out there today, TwisterMC. Past covering some of his Firefox theme updates, he does talk about plenty of interesting tech and Web related content.

Worthy Example Post: iPox Remix

Chris Pirillo – How could you not have much geeky love for Chris Pirillo? I still have to thank my time over at Lockergnome to much of the success I have now in my professional life. I’ve been a fan of Chris’s ever since the TechTV days and it was awesome to work with him on a few projects here and there.

Worthy Example Post: Thank You, Thank You – Note: Ok, example post only included because my name was in there. :)

Clickfire – If you consider yourself a webmaster, which I know many of you do – subscribe to Clickfire. From web dev ideas to web hosting help, they have a lot of content well worth diving into. Emory Rowland has done a great job at producing grade A content for 10 years now.

Worthy Example Post: How to Lose a SEO Contest

As I work my way down my feeds I subscribe to I am sure more suggestions and praise will be coming along the way. A list, B list or no list at all – I don’t care where your blogging from as long as I can get something out of the experience.

Checkout the Entire Feed Suggestion Series!

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Going for a BlogRush

Sep/16 in Hot Web Topics

BlogRushAnybody who knows me well knows I am not usually a sucker for the “get traffic now” schemes out there. Then again, maybe I am missing out on a good deal? Just too soon to tell right now. I want to be proved wrong but I have a feeling I’m going to be disappointed. So while enjoying my temporary sucker status here – I decided to go ahead and give BlogRush a shot.

As you can see – I have added the sidebar widget on my web site and so far I haven’t noticed a darn person leaking in via this deal. It could be too soon to tell though if this is going to be a winer or a loser. Continue Reading →

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$10,000 Blogging Scholarship

Sep/05 in Hot Web Topics, Writing Advice

I always love getting surprises in the ol’ e-mail inbox.

This is Shannon Prue, Scholarship Coordinator for the Daniel Kovach Scholarship Foundation. Just this morning, we started accepting applications for our 2nd annual Blogging Scholarship.

The Grand Prize this year is $10,000 and will be presented at the Blog World and New Media Expo in Las Vegas, this upcoming Nov. 8-9.

We are looking for well qualified applicants, so if you think any of your readers would be eligible, then please let them know about this opportunity. Full details are at CollegeScholarships.org:
http://www.collegescholarships.org/our-scholarships/blogging.htm

What are the requirements to enter?

  • Your blog must contain unique and interesting information about you and/or things you are passionate about. No spam bloggers please!!!
  • U.S. citizen
  • Currently attending full-time in post-secondary education; and
  • If you win, you must be willing to allow us to list your name and blog on this page. We want to be able to say we knew you before you became a well educated, rich, and famous blogging legend.

I would say this is an open door that can’t be passed up for any young writers out there that have a blog and a skill at the written (or typed I guess I should say) word.

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Corporate Bloggers, Be Egotistical

Aug/01 in Hot Web Topics, Web Development Tutorials

Every so often I get an e-mail from a web host who is running a blog and they tell me they have run out of “blog-like” things to say. “Hogwash!” I yell back at them. Ok, so I have never actually used that word exactly – but you get my point. If all else fails, promote yourself.

Yes, corporate blogs and bloggers should be more egotistical and talk more about themselves when there is nothing else left to say.

Here are a few suggestions to get you started:

1. Tell the story of how you came to be. Have you told your rags to riches story yet? Let people how the company started up and how it has grown since then.

2. Pitch one of your products and let me know how real people can make use of it. Don’t pitch it to me as a salesman, give it to me as a person to person conversation and win me over on why it might be for me or somebody that I might know.

3. Who are you? You might also do a type of “profile” post where you tell people more about the folks behind the scene. Let me know who worker number 1,356 is and why he is so important to the day to day business. (and if he’s not, time to give him the pink slip!)

As you can see, when talking about one’s self you could really go on and on. Have any other suggestions as far as ideas go for more corporate writing spot on the Web?

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