The WordPress Wizard

Your WordPress Commenting Strategy Made Easier by Google

By cathy · Comments (1)

Friday, September 3rd, 2010

Google has a new feature this month – search for blogs! Right up our alley.

I talk a lot about leaving comments on other blogs (remember – it's relevant comments!) But the question I often get is how to find those blogs.

Google has a nice blog search feature to help. As with all things Google, there is no indication that this is a permanent feature but it's there now so take advantage of it.

To use it go to Google's homepage and click 'more' and then blogs.

A new screen will appear with familiar search box but this is only for blogs!

Key in your search term and you will get a list of blogs related to your term. An easy and faster way to find relevant blogs to leave comments and of course, a link to your blog! And a great addition to your WordPress Commenting Strategy.

Blog On with Google blogs!

Cathy – The WordPress Wizard

Comments (1)

Do You Dig Into WordPress?

By cathy · Comments (1)

Thursday, September 2nd, 2010

If you already own 'Digging Into WordPress' there is a new version available that covers the new WordPress 3.0.x upgrade. You should already have an e-mail about the upgrade.

If you don't own this great e-book, you need it. It is on my desktop so I can 'dig' into it whenever I want. Get it at Digging Into WordPress

Once you purchase this great book you get updates for life! When you get to the site please note that they are not publishing the hard cover book any more. It's only available in pdf but that's the way I ordered it in the beginning anyway – that was the only way to get updates for life.

Here is a brief description of what you get – right from their site:

Here’s what you’ll get with Digging into WordPress:

Solid, in-depth understanding of site configuration, theme customization, performance optimization, SEO, WordPress security, and much more

Clear, easy-to-read language that shows you how to do it yourself and do it right the first time

The perfect balance of theory, explanation, techniques, and the code to make it happen

Tons of supplemental and bonus information containing hints, secrets, and tips and tricks

An beautifully designed book presented in landscape format for easy reading

Plenty of vivid graphics to help explain abstract concepts

Many actual code snippets ready for easy step-by-step, copy-&-paste usage

A vast collection of useful sites and resources hand-picked from around the Web

A linked Table of Contents for easy access, and hyperlinked URLs throughout the book

A lifetime subscription to all future updates to the book

A discount on the printed-format version of the book

Fanatical customer support

And much more!

Digging into WordPress is perfect for WordPress users in the beginner to intermediate range, but contains plenty of great information for the advanced user as well. If you have any level of experience working with web design or WordPress, this book is written to help you take WordPress to the next level.

And they are right about the advanced users – I do use this as a great reference when I need a refresher on some things that I don't use all the time.

I highly recommend Digging Into WordPress written by Chris Coyier and Jeff Starr.

Cathy Perkins – The WordPress Wizard

Comments (1)

Styling Your WordPress Widgets – Without Knowing HTML??

By cathy · Comments (3)

Wednesday, September 1st, 2010

Yes – there are 2 ways to do it. The first is with a plugin but I bet you'll like my way (the 2nd way) better.

The first way is with a plugin called Spectacu.la Page Widget from Spectacu.la WordPress Themes. This plugin allows you to create a page (with all the editing capabilities of the editor) and then include it in a text widget. There are a few downfalls. You have to save the page and it IS added to the page navigation so you must remember to exclude it from navigation. The second drawback is that it includes EVERYTHING – so if you have something like the Share This plugin, that icon will show up in the text widget created with Spectacu.l so let's talk about the 2nd way.

The second way is to use the page/post editor to create what you want to appear in your text widget. Go to the Source (or html) view and copy everything that's there and paste it into your text widget. Poof – you have a nicely formatted text widget without knowing any html. You can save your page/post as a draft until you get the widget looking just the way you want it and then delete the page/post if you want – or keep it in draft form. One thing – if you want to put a video (or anything presized) you must make sure it will fit the width of the widget. It will not automatically resize. A small price to pay to get a really good looking widget.

Another advantage to using 'my' way is that you don't have yet another plugin using overhead. That is a VERY good thing. Remember – I am all for plugins that add to your site but not to unnecessary plugins. This easy procedure will ensure that you have good looking text widgets without using extra resources.

Give it a try and let me know your results. I bet you will really like to create cool looking text widgets with this little secret.

Cathy Perkins – The WordPress Wizard

Comments (3)

WordPress Posts – Choose the Right Words

By cathy · Comments (1)

Saturday, August 28th, 2010

Do you know how to choose the right words to attract your ideal prospect? You'll have a really good idea after you listen to this class I just did with Rosey Dow, The Prospect Profiler. It was a great call and I want you to be able to hear it.

This IS the full call – about 35 minutes. I don't want you to think you will get a little intro – it's the whole thing and it was really good!!

So, listen to Rosey Dow talk about finding YOUR WORDS

and now head on over to The Prospect Profiler to get even more info!

Presented by Cathy Perkins – The WordPress Wizard

Comments (1)

Is It or Isn’t It – WordPress That Is

By cathy · Comments (6)

Thursday, August 26th, 2010

Just had a great Burning Question. Oh yes – you can ask yours by filling in the form just to the right of this post – see where it says Get The Whitepaper on WordPress Security? There is a box there where you can ask me your most burning question about WordPress.

The question is "How do you know in the source code if a website is done in wordpress?"

It isn't as easy as it used to be – WordPress was right there at the top along with the version. That was a huge security risk and most security minded people took that out of the source. Now WordPress has taken it out as a default – a very good move on their part since hackers scanned to see what WordPress version people were using. If there was a security flaw in that version the hacker knew exactly what to do.

There is a way if the blogger hasn't hidden it in some manner.

When you look at the source code… Read More→

Comments (6)

Knowing your Market: With all the Bad Stuff in the News, When is Profiling a Good Thing?

By cathy · Comments (0)

Wednesday, August 25th, 2010

Following is a guest post by Rosey Dow, The Prospect Profiler.

Rosey and I are doing a call Saturday at noon eastern on this very topic. I'd love for you to join us. Go to The Prospect Profiler now to register for this great call. Now read what Rosey has to say about profiling.

Flashing blue lights and a terrified African-American kid in the street, frustrated olive-skinned college students pulled aside at the airport to be frisked like criminals, an anxious Hispanic truck driver pulled over to check his loads for drugs—the very word profiling brings up images like these and we feel badly for them. That African-American kid could be carrying bread home for his mom, the students could be flying home because of a death in the family, and the Hispanic trucker could be the father of six children who’s working 100 hours a week trying to send his oldest son to college. This kind of profiling brings a knot to our stomachs.

It’s unfair, and we resist it.

So, when is profiling a good thing?… Read More→

Comments (0)

WordPress Site Security – A Plugin to Help

By cathy · Comments (0)

Wednesday, August 25th, 2010

We all need to be more conscious of security in all areas of our lives. This is as true for your WordPress Site as anywhere!

There is a great plugin to help you with that called WP security scan. Find it by keying WP security scan in the search box of Plugins -> Add new and install it. This plugin does not have to stay activated all the time. Great for reducing overhead! Activate it once a month or so and check things out.

While you are here, get more insight into WordPress Security… Read More→

Comments (0)

Make Your WordPress Comments More Personal

By cathy · Comments (2)

Friday, August 20th, 2010

Many of you who leave comments here have your picture show up with your comment. Others don't and might wonder how that happens. It's a place on the web called Gravatar.com. It's the universally recognized avatar and so easy to use.

Automattic, the company that owns WordPress, owns gravatar.com and a benefit to WordPress users is this: gravatars uploaded at Gravatar.com appear automatically on all WordPress blogs where you comment.

Getting your gravatar (your picture) to appear automatically is so easy but a word about gravatar.com. It shares its e-mail addresses and passwords with wordpress.com. So if you created a wordpress.com account to get your API key for Akismet, just sign in at gravatar.com with that e-mail address and password.

If you try to login and you get a message that says your e-mail address is already in the system and you don't remember your password, use the forgotten password link.

From there it's very easy – follow the steps and either upload or provide a url where your picture is located on the web. Gravatar will take it from there and your gravatar will show up wherever you post a comment on a wordpress blog.

Oh – to show you how popular this service is here is a stat from their site:

Millions of avatar images served billions of times per day (29,015 requests per second!)

Blog On With Gravatars

Cathy Perkins – The WordPress Wizard

Comments (2)

Twitter Tools for Your WordPress Site

By cathy · Comments (8)

Thursday, August 19th, 2010

I love Twitter Tools! That is I did until this morning when I noticed there is an upgrade available. Since I'm on the cutting edge I upgraded to Twitter Tools version 2.4 and that's when the fun started.

The screen said I needed to update my Twitter Tools settings. No problem! Until I got to the settings page. It's totally new. It asks you to create an API and gives a link to go do that. So far so good. Then I got to the page to create this API and didn't know how to fill in the first blank. It asks for the Application Name and then says it's what comes after the 'via' in your Twitter Stream. Well, what comes after 'via' depends on what application I'm using – Twitter, Tweetdeck, etc. Then it informs you that you cannot use the word 'twitter' in the application name. What??

After much gnashing of teeth I figured out that it wants you to CREATE the name. Here is the… Read More→

Comments (8)