I’ve been AWOL for a bit ’cause I’ve been swamped with work, lazy and now have new perspective and focus on what I want this blog, my business, Poles Apart Design, and my career to be all about: social media. Social media seems like a buzzword, but really it’s not. Like any set of similar interconnected technologies, it’s a word that encompasses the entirety of a new trend with lasting powering. Specifically, social media simply means what it implies, socializing the way we interact on multiple electronic – for lack of a better word – platforms. [Read more →]

I didn’t get a cell phone until I was in my mid twenties. I refused to. I was definitely not anti-technology, just anti-reach-me-anywhere-anytime! Now of course, three phones later, I love my iPhone and can’t seem to leave it at home without feeling I’m missing an index finger. A ghost limb, if you will. Or perhaps I just like shiny objects (ha ha). Seriously though, since having my iPhone now strapped to my hip, I’ve found so many actually useful iPhone apps ’cause as much as I love new shiny things, I hate excess and prefer practical additions to my life, not glossy ones with no purpose. [Read more →]

I know, it’s been a while since I posted an article here at WordPress PAD. I have a good excuse, I’ve been hard at work developing websites using WordPress as a CMS (and blog). In the past few months I have learned a great deal about what WordPress can and cannot do…mostly what can be done to it with a little grease, time and patience.

With that said, working on a current project where I had to implement a bbpress forum with a current wordpress blog installation, I realized that bbPress, although a sister software of WordPress, is not the best solution for WordPress forum integration for two reasons. One, it’s quite buggy and two, it’s not a smooth integration. [Read more →]

I’ve been quite a busy bee these past few weeks and been so inconsistent with posting at The WordPress PAD. Other than learning how to use Drupal and Joomla content management systems, and the new WordPress 2.5, I’m also starting a blogging network for bloggers in the City of Oakland where I live, work and play…mostly. In doing the research for the design and development of the blog network, I’ve come a cross some great information, plugins and trends in blogging that all relate in a sense to a term I’ve just recently learned about yet apparently I have always been wanting to express in the perfect (in my mind) web presence. It’s called Lifestreaming. Lifestreaming is basically pulling all your web activities from multiple sources online on to one space, your web site.
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The reason the WordPress PAD was off for a couple of weeks recently is because I was working on a new project dear to my heart. Oh, My! Oakland is a blog, directory and all around homage to the City of Oakland, where I live, work and play. Months and months ago I wanted to create a directory of Oakland businesses because I love Oakland and unlike other major and more organized surrounding cities like San Francisco, Oakland has a scattered web presence as far as websites dedicated to Oakland entertainment, information, business or anything for that matter outside of newspapers and official City of Oakland websites. A couple of weeks ago I decided to take the Oakland Photo Blog I created months back and expand it to a website completely devoted to promoting the positive in Oakland which includes a directory of other websites that are Oakland-centric. using a fabulous WordPress Directory Plugin that is truly impressive and customizable.
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We’re ba-aaack! Refreshed and ready to inform and delight! So, this morning I was reading an article from Weblog Tools Collection about the 25 most valuable blogs and was stunned! These blogs are worth millions! I was just talking with a co-worker about blogging. She had been listening to a book on tape a few weeks back and she heard the term “blog” for the first time. Ever since then, she says she has seen the word “blog” everywhere. Anyway, I thought it was interesting that just after I was talking to my co-worker about that, that I read an article about this “blog” phenomenon that’s still so very new to so many people, but apparently can be worth millions…one day…if done right…and about tech stuff…or celebrity crap…or political yadda yadda.
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Ciao everyone. The WordPress PAD is out of the office for the next two weeks. Please come back then for more fab articles on WP, blogging and more. Thanks. See you soon.

Yesterday I revived an old wordpress.com blog I let drift into obscurity. I decided to revive it because I needed an outlet for this particular topic. Anyway, this morning I thought, damn, now I have how many blogs to write for? I think having numerous blogs work for me because I like to write and blather on. But, I suspect not all bloggers like writing. Fortunately there are a few choices, or rather alternatives to article blogging like video blogging, link blogging, podcasting and photo blogging. What kind of blogger are you?

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