+ How to Blog +

Blogging tips and tricks, theme and plugin info, blogging software reviews, and ...

Last Update: Thu Jun 18 22:49:02 2009

+ WordPress 2.8 is out - bugs fixed and features added, sweet! + Just a quick note to let everyone know that WordPress 2.8 is now available. As a reminder, I always advise readers to wait [...] from your dashboard, you’ll appreciate the new CodePress editor which gives syntax highlighting to the previously-plain editor.

+ New Category/Feature on How to Blog: Readers Write In + I frequently receive email from readers of How to Blog , sometimes thanking me and other times with blogging questions that they [...] to the blog - the occasional posting of Reader Questions or even any articles or opinion pieces? I’m all ears!

+ WordPress upgrade renders a reader’s post slugs unchangable and permalinks stuck in default format despite custom settings + Can you help my reader, Steven, who wrote in to me with the following problem? I have recently upgraded to Wordpress 2.7.1 [...] any and all suggestions in the comments section! Thanks from both myself and Steven for any assistance you can provide.

+ I’m baaaack - How to Blog will continue on! + So I realized that I am doing all of this research for my work and that I’m taking a lot of notes….and that [...] stuff I come across while I’m working. And so that’s what I’m going to do from now on.

+ How to Blog needs additional contributors + As you can see, it has been quite a while since I last posted. I apologize for that profusely, but it is not without good reason. I [...] this blog get back to it’s roots of helping new and experienced bloggers alike! Thanks so much in advance!!!!

+ Hold off on upgrading to WordPress 2.1 for a bit.. + Denis de Benardy (the creator of the Semiologic Pro theme and many of the amazing WordPress plug-ins used here on How To Blog [...] things are stable enough for a proper release. Thanks for reading! Denis He gives good advice…

+ WordPress 2.1 released today + I’m sorry that, for personal reasons, it’s been just about forever since my last post. I hope to change that in [...] before you upgrade to WordPress 2.1 ! If you do updgrade, please let me know how smoothly it went for you. Thanks!

+ Has anyone else had trouble editing any of their existing posts in WordPress 2.0.2? + The last couple of times that I tried to update my wordpress theme list, when I click ‘Save’ (or Save and [...] know why it didn’t work and why it does now…I’m just glad its working finally!)

+ Updated my WordPress Theme List - now listing 960 wordpress themes! + My WordPress Theme List has been updated — and while I wasn’t sure if we would cross the 900 mark, turns out [...] away from 1000 free wordpress themes available for download!!! Way to go to all of the wordpress theme authors!!

+ General advice on handling WordPress upgrades and when to install them + While I reported the WordPress 2.0.3 upgrade as soon as I heard about it, I held off on installing the upgrade (mostly because I [...] convenient to me, and not upgrade in panic mode. 3. Waiting to upgrade forces me to check with the various WordPress Plugins

+ You might wanna hold off on upgrading WordPress until version 2.0.4… + As has annoyingly been the case with many a WordPress release, turns out that this latest upgrade (WordPress 2.0.3) came with a few [...] “taking a lunch break” — making the support forums completely inaccessible for the moment.

+ Time to upgrade: WordPress 2.0.3 is out + WordPress 2.0.3 has just been released. Matt posts that this is “the latest in the stable 2.0 [...] the link to download the newest WordPress . I’ll report more once I’ve upgraded myself

+ ArenaWP announces winners of WordPress 2.0 Theme Competition + Well this news is two weeks late, but better late than never. The winners of the WordPress 2.0 Theme competition hosted by [...] within the next day or so. How exciting! New wordpress themes! I can’t wait to go and check them all out!

+ I’ve been in migraine hell and have missed you all - hope to be posting more frequently again soon! + I can’t believe how long its been since my last post. I apologize for my lack of updates to How to Blog and my being so [...] where I’ve been fortunate enough to not have a migraine and be able to think and use the computer I’ve had to dev

+ WordPress 2.0 Theme Competition Officially Ends, winners to be announced in two weeks + ArenaWP has officially closed the doors to new entrants to its theme competition and so the judging process has begun! Terry (the [...] We’ve recently crossed the 800 themes mark — think there’s a chance we can make it to 900??

+ Save the Internet from Mob 2.0 (ISPs slowing down the loading of websites that don’t pay them protection fees) + Hi Everyone - THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT FOR BLOGGERS (and all users of the internet) Please read the following and sign the [...] fast as their own webserver is capable of serving up the page?? What are they, Mob 2.0? And what about the users of these intern

+ What’s the best webhosting company for WordPress bloggers? + I was recently contacted by a reader who was disappointed because they had chosen the same webhost as I did for their blog, [...] bloggers? I would personally love to hear all of your experiences, positive and negative, so please comment away!!

+ My Comprehensive WordPress Theme List has been updated and now consists of 744 wordpress themes! + Way to go to all of the wordpress theme developers out there! I just finished the latest update of my comprehensive list of [...] crossed the 700 mark and are almost halfway to the 800 mark with a whopping 744 wordpress themes available for download!

+ WordPress and TextPattern APRIL FOOLS PRANK says they will merge to form WordPattern CMSMS + In an elaborate Aprill Fools Joke, the WordPress Development Blog announced that WordPress and TextPattern had merged and formed a [...] being decommissioned. I get emails regularly from people who are fed up with TypePad and looking to switch to WordP

+ Sponsor the WordPress Arena WP 2.0 Theme Competition by donating cool prizes + Much thanks to Terry/Kineda for reviving the spirit of the WordPress 2.0 Theme Competition that was intended by the original [...] extended the deadline for submission of themes to May 1st to a) allow for the time for more sponsors to get involved and then

+ Important security issue with WordPress results in the release of version 2.0.2 + From the folks at WordPress: An important security issue has been brought to the attention of the WordPress team and we [...] and is being run and judged by some of the more well known and respected (i.e., trustworthy) members of the WP community

+ TypePad is essentially holding my old URL hostage by refusing to set up 301 permanent redirects to my new blog location + I have been having some seriously frustrating conversations with the tech support people over at Six Apart. I’m hoping [...] on moving (like my blog of Best Funny Pictures , which averages 3000+ visitors a day). But if they’re going to continue

+ WordPress.com may support AdSense, YPN, and Chitika in the future + I’ve previously reported that wordpress.com did not give bloggers the ability to incorporate AdSense ads into their blogs. I just [...] automatically sends that feedback they could make the process of reporting splogs that much easier…(my 2 cents)

+ Leaked: Google planning on squeezing AdSense margins in 2006 and beyond + c|net posted an article yesterday about how Google indavertantly revealed internal projections . Some of this leaked information [...] (which is still in Beta) because Google is apparently planning on screwing AdSense publishers in the upcoming future.

+ WordPress 2.0 Themes Competition Website got hacked - HOW?? Is there a security vulnerability in WordPress? Was the theme competition itself a hoax? + Update: It now appears that the kcyap theme competition was a complete hoax and the site owner made off with 188 WordPress 2.0 [...] patient. The result for this competition will still be announce don the 10th March 2006.” This should be a remi

+ My RSS feed was broken, but is now fixed so please try resubscribing again! + I’ve decided to use FeedBurner for my feeds for a number of reasons (which I’ll list in an upcoming post), [...] messages. However, it is now fixed , so please do subscribe to my RSS feed using your preferred news aggregator!

+ Welcome to the new permanent home of How to Blog, now proudly powered by WordPress + Well, it’s official! I’ve finally gone ahead and done what I’ve been wanting to do for ages now [...] find what you’re looking for Speaking of sitemaps, I can use the Google Sitemap plugin to automatically generat

+ March of the Migraines (I mean February…) + Sorry that it’s been ages since my last post, and I haven’t been as good as I’d like about responding [...] my fingers crossed (it’s been two days without a migraine!!). wish me luck. More to come later..

+ Starting a new blog? Get your own domain name! Do NOT use a subdomain of typepad.com, wordpress.com, blogspot.com (etc) + So, you want to start a new blog. Maybe you don’t have much experience with blogging, so you don’t think [...] name for your blog. You will regret if at some point down the road if you don’t start out with your own domain name.

+ More complaints about TypePad’s TrackBack system’s handling of spam - cannot ban by IP address + In my continuing rant on TypePad’s horrifically poor system for managing comment and trackback spam, I wanted to post the [...] never see the light of day on my blog. Everything is moderated - do you see any spam on here? No. SO LEAVE ME ALONE!!!)

+ I’m still experiencing problems with trackbacks in WordPress 2.0.1 + So far I’ve only had the opportunity to test how WordPress 2.0.1 handles sending of automatic trackbacks (in the [...] blogs that were referenced in a wordpress 2.0.1 post - making you look like a spammer What a bummer.

+ WordPress 2.0.1 has been released + One month to the day from when wordpress 2.0 first came out, the first wordpress point release to address the many needed bug fixes [...] to a different blogging system altogether — moving How to Blog is gonna be one hell of a nightmare, but the benefits th

+ Just Great - TypePad stats currently not working + Wanna check your TypePad stats to see how many visitors you’ve gotten and where they came from? Too bad. Stats are ...

+ Comparison of WordPress and TypePad by someone who has used both extensively for over a year + I am feeling really frustrated right now – like I’m stuck in limbo with a conundrum on my hands. Why? Because I’ve [...] get to choose the number of posts that will appear on their homepage, and after that – well, good luck navigating the blog b/c the

+ My Comprehensive WordPress Theme List Crosses the 600 Mark!! + Wow, I can’t believe it - I’ve just uploaded the latest update to my WP theme list and it now contains a [...] the theme, dragging and dropping theme sections around to change their order in the sidebar at will and adding and removing content

+ TypePad has no pagination features (next and previous buttons at the bottom of the page) AND no way of implementing them!! + ...

+ Why I’m not upgrading to WordPress 2.0 - for now + I know that I promised to test out the process of upgrading an existing WordPress installation from 1.5.x to 2.0, but until 2.0 has [...] sooner rather than later), the bugginess of WordPress 2.0 will be resolved, and some amazing 2.0 specific themes and plugins will s

+ WordPress 2.0 users, tell me your stories + Consider this an official request — I want to hear from WordPress 2.0 users about what your experiences have been [...] (at) gmail.com or, preferedly, comment on this post. Thanks in advance, faithful readers. I appreciate your input!