blogging 102

Reading time: 4 – 6 minutes The purpose of this post is twofold in terms of blogging.  First I wanted to introduce to you two plugins you might not have ever seen.  Secondly I wanted to talk about professionalism for designers. Plugin One is an affiliate publishers best friend.  Adrotate is every bit as good as Max Blog Press’s Ninja Affiliate.  Not only will the last several versions of this plugin provide you with quick affiliate masking slash redirect through your own site, it keeps track of your banner impressions and click throughs.  Version 2.4 even has a feature to block banners when they reach a certain number of impressions or clicks. Unlike Ninja Affiliate version 2.3.1 of AdRotate works quite well in WorPress Mu.  There are things to be aware of though.  If you use the banner wizard you can not later make the link an auto redirect link, you will have to stop rotating the banner and make a new entry.  Secondly in version 2.4 he automatically sticks a link back... 

Reading time: 2 – 2 minutes Localizing images on your wordpress blog often times is a tedious task, but something you need to do if you want to avoid hotlinking images in your blog.  I hate hotlinking to images for several reasons.  The first and foremost reason is it is bad form and impolite if you don’t have permission.  The second thing is you have no idea when, if or how that file might change.  This is less of a problem these days since disk space is cheap and people are often using image hosting services such as flickr.  In the old days though it was not uncommon for perverse webmasters to put up pornographic pictures using the same title that was being hotlinked too.  I remember seeing several business meetings go awry from this and learned quickly just how bad this practice can be. Do I still hotlink even knowing the potential dangers?  The answer is yes and no.  I often times grab an image on the fly when I am posting, especially if I’m using Scribefire... 

Reading time: 1 – 2 minutes In my quest to provide an every better experience for all my readers I have added a new feature in the way of the WP Link Directory. This handy plugin allows site owners to make use of the constant flow of internet traffic. Whether you are actively promoting your wordpress based site or not, this plugin also comes with some handy searchable identifiers. Like CommentLuv, NoFollow Free and KeywordLuv blogs using the WP Link Directory can seach out blogs using it by searching for “Powered by WP Link Directory“. If you don’t want potential spammers finding you that way their is the option of removing the text link. There is also the option of requiring a reciprocal link for sites of a designated page rank to increase your own backlinks and a nofollow option. Post Origin: Local News and Newspapers Click this link to get your own syndication code. Update:  Be advised Wordpress 2.7 beta 2 has problems displaying this plugin.  It works but the display... 

Reading time: 2 – 3 minutes There are a growing list of things that I already hate about WordPress 2.7.  Most of them are minor issues that can either be ignored or simply written off as quirks I don’t really need to worry about for my style of blogging.  The major issue is still the layout. Wordpress 2.7 Write Screen. Click to open full size in new frame or window. This is not some minor petty concern. This is flat out bad design.  Any blogger worthy of the name is using some plugins and other tools on the administration side of the blog.  This is as it should be, since customization has always been a prime feature of WordPress.  I sincerely hope someone soon comes up with an administration plugin to fix the layout flaws. Here is the major problem with WordPress 2.7.  As you will notice in the full screen image all of the internal links for WordPress 2.7 have moved to the left hand side of the screen.  in western languages we read from left to right meaning the most... 

Reading time: < 1 minute For those who have been eagerly anticipating the release of Wordpress 2.7, it is getting closer and closer. For those of you dreading a new release, let me say I am with you. I finally got around to installing the latest build of Wordpress 2.7 and let's just say this is not going to make a lot of people happy. First off is the dashboard setup.  Read More →