So, let’s say you have a blog that publishes more than blog posts. Or rather, you use WordPress’s blog posts loop to publish glossaries, directories, or other lists that you don’t necessarily want published in your rss feed or exposed in your archives. Well, there’s a two-prong solution that takes just about 60 minutes of your time. First, installing the WordPress Advanced Category Excluder plugin and two, creating a JavaScript enhanced archives page that only exposes the posts and pages you want your users to see.
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Hi, welcome back to Our Love Affair with WordPress series. It’s been a while, I know. But, I’ve been busy working with some clients to make their WordPress blogs as fabulous as they can be! So, last time on Our Love Affair with WordPress, we talked about Enhancing Your WordPress Blog With Essentials. Now, let’s say you’ve got a pretty tricked out blog, that both emphasizes your topic without all the unnecessary spinning rims and shiny bling, but you got some seriously phat content, sweet design and sick SEO that doesn’t interfere with the user experience. Now, one reason I very much dislike excess in blog design, and excess in general is because having a lot of anything means there’s that much more to maintain and that much more to look a hot mess when not maintained on a regular basis. With that said, let’s talk about what blog maintenance essentials you should practice to maintain keep your blog hot, and prevent a hot mess.
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If the kind folks at WordPress cannot help you install your WordPress for free, see here, there are alternatives. If you are inclined not to even try installing WordPress yourself, you have a couple of solid choices that cost you nothing or very little. First, let me say that it’s not difficult to install WordPress even if you are completely tech-unsavvy. But, I do understand how some would rather not touch complicated looking files in gibberish language. Visit WordPress’s page on the 5-minute installation. It actually takes 5 minutes if you’re somewhat computer savvy, but maybe 10 minutes if you’re not. Also visit WordPress’ main installation pages if you’re installation requires a bit more elbow grease for whatever reason.

Now, on to the nitty-gritty. There are usually two types of installations you can do. Either a new installation or an upgrade. Upgrades may or may not be simple depending on the difference in versions. If, for example, you’re upgrading to the current version, 2.5.1 from let’s say version 1, which I hope to goodness you’re not, things can get a bit complicated…maybe.
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Welcome back to Our Love Affair with WordPress. In last month’s Episode 3, we customized the Harmony WordPress theme for a fictitious bra-fitting business. In this final Episode of Part 4, before we move on to Part 5 in the series, I’ll cover how you can add a little finesse, searchability and optimization to your weblog once you have the blog design, layout and basic elements down. The following are a few enhancements to your WordPress blog (or blog-powered website) that will make your blog more dynamic, optimized and user-friendly.

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When I first began this blog, I suffered the same conundrum many beginning business bloggers suffered: How much is too much information? I didn’t want to give away so much info that the services my business offers can be of no use to them. It’s not as dire as giving away trade secrets, but blogging about WordPress design, content, tools, plugins, etc. sometimes means teaching readers how to, when to, and the where to of what I do, on some level. But, does it mean my readers can go out, install, develop, design, update, maintain, and fix bugs in their blogs after they read my posts? Not really. I don’t give away trade secrets, sure (not that much is “secret” in these days on the information superhighway). But, most importantly I’ve learned and I am still learning that what I know is one thing, what I and my business can do is another. Other business bloggers should know this too.
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How does one go about blogging? Well, first read Poles Apart Design’s article What is a Blog? Why Should I Blog? Who Blogs? This article should especially help you in deciding if you should blog and why. Now that you’ve decided to blog, you want to know how to go about it. Well, here’s a somewhat comprehensive list on how to blog:
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The following are plugins that I think all WordPress blogs should have to make your blog ideally functional:

Aksimet and Spam Karma 2: Aksimet is the great default spam killer that comes with every installation of WordPress. Spam Karma 2 is an additional essential plugin that not only gives your blog extra security and you more piece of mind, you also have the option of sending yourself a digest of spam stats, or you can just check the stats and modify many settings in the WordPress admin area so you can control more spam the way you need to.

All-in-One SEO Pack or, Add Meta Tags and SEO Title Tags: SEO is essential for your WordPress blog if you want search engines to find your blog.

WordPress Database Backup: You should definitely backup your database as often as possible and this plugin gives you the option to do so by either downloading it your computer, emailing to yourself or saving it on your server, hourly, daily or weekly. [Read more →]

When I first started building websites and blogs I toured a few content management systems that were all but ridiculous to figure out. Though, at the time there were a few out there that were simplified for the non-designer or non-developer, me being me, I needed something more robust and endlessly flexible. Joomla and Drupal were a couple I explored but both, especially Drupal, were just so incomprehensible. Of course, the modules, extensions, etc. gibberish make sense to me now, but back then, I was just as lost as the average person trying to learn either a new language or a new system. In fact, looking back on those maddening weeks of hyper-research, I realized now, with Web 3.0 looming and Web 2.0 in full throttle, that it’s often language that is a barrier in learning, using and adapting any new way of doing something or any new system, especially on the Internet which is still very new to many people. At least, the way many of us use it now. In this article I’ll attempt to break down common gibberish (lingo) used to explain simple concepts in this new age of the Internet and put them in context. [Read more →]