Tag Archives | dashboard

The Dawn of a New WordPress

The Dawn of a New WordPress – V2.5.x

Not long ago, the ever popular blog hosting site which goes by the name of WordPress gave their system a remake, thus giving birth to a newer and better WordPress 2.5. It is a major improvement over WordPress 2.3 and these are the areas where the new features are prominent.

Dashboard
The dashboard is now designed to look very much like your blog’s hub and is designed in a sleeker and more focused manner which provides you an interesting choice of colour schemes. The new layout is now more organized with quick links at your disposal and easy to use. Also, feeds are now customisable for your viewing convenience and are not only limited to WordPress Development Blog or WordPress Planet feeds. To add to that, the displays of incoming links such as the ones from Google Blog Search are can now be personalized.

Navigation Menu
One feature which went through a major revamp is the navigation menu which has shrunk in menu items, a number of which have been renamed. Renamed items include Presentation (changed to Design) and Options (changed to Settings) and these are now included under Manage.

Post & Page
This area had a major overhaul which leaves bloggers who use the ‘tag’ and ‘trackback’ features needing to scroll more when using the new WordPress. There is also no more drag and drop option for items. However, WordPress 2.5 will provide the option to add pictures and videos directly from the likes of YouTube and Flickr.

Post/Page Management
Navigation and management is now a lot easier as users can now skim through and edit their posts according to tags or authors. Also, there is now the ability to mass delete unwanted entries. An interesting change is the date format, which will give displays such as “3 hours ago” for any edits or posts within short periods of time.

Edit Post Page
Basically, the most prominent change would be the renaming of ‘View This Post’ to ‘Preview’. However, it is now more convenient and faster when it comes to post editing and there is a quick link for quick post deletion. Overall, it is a whole lot more convenient.

Miscellaneous Management
There is now a ‘Tags’ option for easy tag addition, editing or deletion. As for media, there is now a Media Library which supports more file types than what WordPress 2.3 could where all your uploaded files can be managed. Also, it is easier to manage widgets now than before. They are easy to add onto the sidebar and once there, can simply be dragged as you wish for your desired arrangement.

Other Changes
There is now an improvement on the user filters which makes it more user-friendly. Also, you can now see the exact number of comments in the navigation menu pending your review. One last notable addition is the ability to support avatars directly from the box. Overall, WordPress 2.5 is quite an improvement but the changes make it a love or hate affair. Either way, it is certainly the talk of the blogosphere.

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How to Create a Profit Pulling WordPress Blog Today

How to Create a Profit Pulling WordPress Blog Today

The WordPress Platform has come a long way since the early days, so much so that you can now easily control every function of your WordPress Blog from an easy to manage WordPress Admin Dashboard ….

Install your WordPress Theme, Install your WordPress Plugin, Install Affiliate Products, Optimize your WordPress Blog.

Now if you have never used WordPress before you may be breaking into a cold sweat just thinking about this ….

Worry not, it is simpler than you may think….. I would suggest following the simple steps before you even start to think about the technical stuff.. now most would tell you get a domain name etc etc

Ok, that is half right, but if you follow the steps suggested below, then the likelyhood is you will get your WordPress Blog setup right – First Time ……

Step 1 – Research and choose a Niche

This is an important first step, this will get your creative thinking head on, just get a blank piece of paper and write down maybe 5 things that interest you. Once you have your list, then you can check how popular these ideas may be by using for example the Google Keyword Tool Anylazer…

Step 2 – Choosing your Domain Name

Choosing a Domain Name could be a two minute job, for example if you want to self-brand yourself, if so it would be a case of registering yourname.com

If you are looking to blog about a certain niche, then some basic research is required. I would also suggest you look to try and chose a keyword rich. For example, if you are blogging about Bonsai Trees then try and have this within your Domain Name.

Step 3 – Registering your Domain Name

There are many Domain Name Registers out there, I have used a few, over the last year I have used Namecheap.com for a number of reasons, they are reasonably priced, offer free WHOIS Gaurd to protect your Personal Details and with their money off coupons you can secure your Domain Name for under $9.00! . If you enter “”Namecheap Coupon Code – July 2009″” then you can save money on the cost.

Step 4 – Setting up your Webhosting Account

It is important you get this step right, I have in the past lost out with Webhost companies disappearing overnight and with it your websites and business. It can be personal choice who you decide to host with, I would recommend Hostgator.com, the reasons behind it they are reliable and cheap, offer 24-7 customer service and to help you get started you could get the first months hosting for only 1 cent!

Step 5- Updating your DNS Nameservers

This step is required to have your Domain Name Register, ‘point’ your Domain Name to your ‘webspace’ so when people type your WordPress Blog Domain Address into their Internet Browser, it will automatically go to where your WordPress Blog is installed. Your Webhosting company will supply your Nameservers Information – for example- ns1.yourwebhoster.com, ns2.yourwebhoster.com you would access ‘Transfer to Webhost’ in your Domain Control Panel and enter the Nameserver Information and Update. It can take up to 24 Hours to propgate the information and point to your webspace.

Step 6 – Installing your WordPress Blog

As I mentioned in Step 4 it is important to choose the correct Webhosting Company for your webhosting needs, one of the reasons being that they will supply a powerful function called ‘Fantastico De Luxe’ , so with a few clicks of your mouse you can have your WordPress Blog installed in under 3 minutes.

The steps above are just the start to creating your profit pulling WordPress Blog.

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So What

So What’s New In WordPress 2.5.x?

In the beginning, everyone was excited about the news of the release of WordPress 2.5 but just when it was about to make its official debut on March 10, 2008, the release date was pushed back crushing the hope of millions of bloggers worldwide waiting anxiously for its release. Now, the latest stable release of WordPress (Version 2.5.1) is available for download at http://wordpress.org/download/

However, as of the time of release, it’s still in its early copy and was still under some concluding rounds of testing the program and also tweaking it; but it is now stable enough to provide you with a quick overview of some of the feature changes and additions, along with a brief comparison against its predecessor, WordPress 2.3.x series. It’s time to change!

i) The Dashboard

The very first thing you laid eyes on will be the dashboard which is similar to the hub of your blog. The new dashboard now not only features a sleek and more focused design but also comes with a few colour schemes which has switched from very cool, cool blues to the even colder icy blue, sexy dark grey and exotic burnt orange. The other change you will notice right away is the content’s layout. You will no longer have the content on your left and the blog statistics on your right but now you have a single column which has some quick links to the post composing screens, followed by blog stats, any recent comments you received, incoming links and lastly aggregated feeds.

On the plus side, now you can customize the feeds to the feeds that you want to see at a glance. Thus, you are no longer restricted to feeds from the WordPress development blog or WordPress planet. You’ll also be able to personalize your incoming links display such as from Google Blog Search to Technorati.

ii) The Navigation Menu

The navigation menu also has been changed from the straight forward menu of items in WordPress 2.3.x to a reduced menu with a few menu items completely renamed. While Write, Manage, Design, and Comments could be found in the usual spot, but the Plugins, Users, and Settings are now in the mid-upper right corner. The name changes are Presentation to Design, Options has become Settings and Blogroll renamed to Links and can be found under Manage. Under Write, there is also a Link navigation item where you’ll be able to add links to your blogroll.

iii) The Post and Page

The write pages have also undergone complete overhauls, leaving power bloggers who has grown accustomed to the many of the advanced WordPress features such as tags, categories, and trackbacks to do quite a bit of scrolling. Gone is also the option to drag and drop items in the order you’d prefer as you could in version 2.3.x. However, you may find a cool new addition which is the media manager. Currently, it only supports uploading from your computer but soon, there will be an option to add media from popular services such as YouTube and Flickr.

iv) The Post/Page Management

The Manage page no longer has the manual one at a time posts delete or clicking on the Edit link next to a particular entry. In version 2.5.x, to edit post, instead of edit link, just click on the post title while to view posts with a particular tags listed on the Manage page, just click on the tag and WordPress will list all those posts, the same with clicking on the author or category. As an added bonus, you can now mass delete entries.

The date format has also changed to sporting a user friendly “2 hours ago” as opposed to an actual date. After a 24 hour period, it will change to the usual date format. Besides that, you’ll also be able to see the posts’ tags and publication status.

v) The Edit Post Page

Most notable change is the “View this Post” button which has replaced the “preview” link that was hidden between the title and post content. In addition, you’re also able to quickly edit the post slug on the fly. Finally, there’s a quick link for deletion that enables the users to quickly delete their posts and there is an option to view the comments associated with the post, all comments, or even all posts.

vi) The Tag Management

Under Manage, you’ll probably see a brand new sub-menu named Tags. It allows you to do some basic tag management such as adding, editing, or deleting individual tags similar to category management page.

vii) The Media Management

The other new link appearing under the Manage tab is called Media Library, which has replaced Upload, and it’s where you can find and manage each of your uploaded files. WordPress is now supporting a multitude of file formats, such as video and audio.

viii) The Widgets Management

There will also be no need for you to click on any particular widgets onto the sidebar because you now can click on an Add link next to it and it is added! Once it’s already on the sidebar, then you’re free to click and drag however you want them to be arranged. To help beginners, each widget now comes with a brief description detailing what the widget does and widget filters as well as a search function (in case you lose track).

ix) The Other Changes

First, the user filters have been improved a little and clicking on a specific role’s link will only display users with that particular role. Secondly, WordPress will now show you exactly how many comments you have waiting for review in the navigation menu so you no longer have to click on comments to discover them. Third, there is an option (you can also disable it) to support avatars straight out of the box.
In conclusion, this version seems to be heading in the correct direction which has improved over the previous version with several small, yet significant changes to WordPress. For the most part, most people will either love it or hate it. But one thing for sure is WordPress will certainly leave a lot of commotion in its wake.

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Installing WordPress Plugins – A Little Goes A Long Way

Installing WordPress Plugins – A Little Goes A Long Way

WordPress is the most popular blogging and CMS (content management system) platform used by inexperienced webmasters. The reason it is so popular is because you can add plugins to increase the functionality of the site without having to have any kind of technical knowledge. However, there are some very important factors you should know about before adding plugins to your WordPress website.

What is WordPress and What is a Plugin?

WordPress, on its own, is a very powerful and stable program. It is an OpenSource (free) program that is installed on a database and is designed to manage the content that you input into it. It is updated regularly to correct any known issues or to add more features to the core program. You should always make sure you are running the newest version on your website. Upgrading to the newest version is as easy as the click of a button in your user dashboard.

Plugins are scripts that are developed as add-ons to the existing program. These give you the ability to add new features to the program to help customize the site to your needs. Because WordPress is OpenSource, it means that any web developer can use the source code or API to create new scripts for the program.

Caution is Needed When Adding Plugins

Because plugins are created by all different developers, they are not always compatible with each other. When compatibility issues arise, it can make the database unstable. In other words, the engine driving your website will begin to fail. This can result in your site crashing.

Another reason to exercise caution when installing plugins is because every one you add on to your site adds more code to the core program. Adding too many will bloat the code and make your website slow and sluggish. It can also hamper the ability of search engine bots from crawling your website effectively.

Which WordPress plugins should you install?

I cannot give you a definite answer to this since every webmaster and every website has different needs and functions. What I can advise is this; only install the plugins you really need. Typically this would be an SEO plugin such as All In One SEO, a database backup plugin such as WP Database Backup, a contact form plugin such as Easy Contact, and a social plugin such as Sociable or Share This. These are the plugins I consider to be essential.

Any other plugins you should only install one at a time and tested for compatibility before adding any more. Always do a database backup before adding new plugins as a safety net in case any issues arise and you need to restore your website.

WordPress plugins are wonderful inventions and can help you create the website of your dreams, but before you go on a wholesale plugin installation spree, be aware of the consequences.

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Setting Up WordPress Website1

Setting Up WordPress Website

If you are interested in WordPress Step By Step Videos Tutorials, it is likely that you are interested in learning how to blog without spending a lot of time and effort that would normally be required to learn about how to properly operate a blog. The Internet has become a source of large amounts of income for millions of people across the world, this is possible because of blogging and the ability to generate revenue from any blog that you are currently operating. Taking advantage of tutorials is the key to learning the best way to maintain and operate a blog through the WordPress website.

What you need to do is sign up for an account through WordPress and use the username in order to log into the website. Once you are logged into your account, you need to click on the tab that says my blog and then click new post. You can then enter a title for the post that you are adding to the blog and type the post in the body section. You can enter any important post tags in order to increase your traffic and press the add button.

Once you have added the important tags to the post, you can click the blue publish button and the post will be added to the blog. You also have the option of clicking the dashboard tab and then editing any aspects of the post that you wish to change. This website offers a simple layout and many different ways to benefit from revenue generation from your blog. Maintaining a blog is very easy, WordPress Step By Step Tutorials will allow you to understand the process of maintaining a blog without investing much time of effort into creating a blog that can generate addition income every month.

What WordPress Step By Step Tutorials can do for you is allow you to focus on easily to learn techniques. This information can help you to better understand the WordPress website and take advantage of this information in order to create a passive income source that will provide an easy method of making money.

There are many advantages to WordPress Step By Step Videos Tutorials, maintaining a blog can be difficult and time consuming, these tutorials will provide you with information that is easy to understand. This will allow you to easily operate any WordPress blog with very little effort.

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How To Get A WordPress API Key For The Akismet WordPress Plugin

How To Get A WordPress API Key For The Akismet WordPress Plugin

With the growing popularity of blogs and the ease to obtain links through comments on blogs, it didn’t take long for programmers to come up with automated tools to blast link packed spam comments to unsuspecting blogs.

Some just turn comments off for their blog but to me that eliminates one of the great features of making your blog interactive for your visitors. Comments can open discussion between the reader and the blogger. Your blog’s visitors can even subscribe to a post’s comments, getting notified of any new comments, keeping your readers coming back.

The WordPress plugin, Akismet checks comments posted on your blog posts against the Akismet web service to see if they look like spam or not.

To activate Akismet from your WordPress blog dashboard, click Plugins, scroll down and click Activate next to the WordPress Akismet plugin. After you do that you will see a box near the top of the dashboard that reads:

Akismet is not active. You must enter your WordPress.com API key for it to work.

Click the link in the message, and then the Akismet Configuration panel will open. You should then see this in the middle of the screen:

Please enter an API key. (Get your key.)

On the top of that page click the Sign Up tab, fill in your information and if you have a self-hosted blog choose the Just a username, please option.

Be sure to use a good email address in here to get your login information and WordPress API key, click the box to agree to legal junk and click next.

Check your email and click the confirmation link from WordPress to activate your account. You should then see a page that reads, “”Your account is now active!”” Click the login link within the text of that page and login.

You should now be at the WordPress.com site, if so click the dropdown box on the very top right of the page and choose “”Edit Profile””, now you are in the Global Dashboard.

Within the WordPress Global Dashboard you can now see your WordPress API key on the right side of the page. Oh, and by now you should have also got the API key in an email from WordPress also! But you should still edit your profile while you are in the Global Dashboard.

Now its time to place the API key in the Akismet WordPress plugin; go back into your WordPress blog dashboard, click the link on the Akismet WordPress plugin warning box near the top of the dashboard. Paste the WordPress API key in the box and click update options.

If the warning box is not visible check to see if Akismet is activated, click Plugins and look for the status of the plugin on the right. You will notice that all activated plugins are highlighted green. When Akismet is activated you can configure it by clicking Plugins, and look for the Akismet subpanel (white text in the dark blue bar) directly below and to the right of then main panel menu.

Keeping comment spam out while allowing your blog visitors to comment, will not only keep your blog clean but more interactive and help generate more traffic.

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