WordPress, version 2.8 “Baker,” is available for download. Version 2.8 contains improvements to themes, widgets, taxonomies, and overall speed and has over 790 bug fixes.
Highlights:
- New drag-and-drop widgets admin interface and new widgets API
- Syntax highlighting and function lookup built into plugin and theme editors
- Browse the theme directory and install themes from the admin
- Allow the dashboard widgets to be arranged in up to four columns
- Allow configuring the number of items to show on management pages with an option in Screen Options
- Support timezones and automatic daylight savings time adjustment
- Support IIS 7.0 URL Rewrite Module
- Faster loading of admin pages via script compression and concatenation.
Check out the official WordPress blog for more information on this latest version.
Posted on 11th June 2009 in Versions | No Comments »
The term Search Engine Optimization (SEO) describes a diverse set of activities that you can perform to increase the amount of targeted traffic that comes to your website from search engines (you may also have heard these activities called Search Engine Marketing or Search Marketing). This includes things you do to your site itself, such as making changes to your text and HTML code.
It also includes communicating directly with the search engines, or pursuing other sources of traffic by making requests for listings or links. Tracking, research, and competitive review are also part of the SEO package.
SEO is not advertising, although it may include an advertising component. It is not public relations, although it includes communication tasks similar to PR. As a continually evolving area of online marketing, SEO may sound complicated, but it is very simple in its fundamental goal: gaining targeted visitors.
There are thousands of professionals all over the world who earn their living by providing SEO services to website owners. The good SEO pros spend large amounts of time and resources learning the skills of effective optimization. This goes to show that you could easily spend years learning SEO since there is so much to learn.
Here are 10 top tips that I found from various resources on the internet that are sure to help you:
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Posted on 5th May 2009 in SEO | 6 Comments »
Niche blogs are mini blogs/websites that are designed specifically to appeal to a very specific niche. Due to the size of the internet and the amount of content out there, niche blogs tend to be VERY specific.
My other website, JavaScript Workshop could be considered a niche blog, but I expanded it to cover other topics other than “JavaScript”, but that is the general idea. This blog you are reading now is a niche blog.
Look at the top 100 blogs as tracked by Technorati.com and you’ll find that the majority of them have a defined niche. Some niches are wider than others—but in nearly all cases they’ve carved out a niche for themselves.
There are many reasons why choosing a niche is important to building a successful blog, but here are a few (10 to be exact).
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Posted on 29th April 2009 in Blogging tips | 1 Comment »
One of the traps that some bloggers fall into is that their blogs often become quite one-dimensional in terms of the type of posts they write.
Mixing up the types of post that you write can add interest and character to your blog, which will help to keep readers over the long haul. There are many types of posts that you might like to use—here are 20 to start experimenting with:
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Posted on 4th April 2009 in Blogging tips | No Comments »
Advertising is by far the most popular monetization method that bloggers use. After deciding whether to show ads, the next decision is which type. The most popular advertising system with bloggers is Google’s AdSense, but there are several other advertising system options (affiliate networks), including:
Posted on 26th March 2009 in Blogging tips | No Comments »
WordCamp is a conference type of event that focuses squarely on everything WordPress. Everyone from casual end users all the way up to core developers show up to these events. These events are usually highlighted by speeches or keynotes by various people.
WordCamp is a spin off from the popular BarCamp which was a spin off of FooCamp. Each one of these events are smaller in nature when compared to your particular conference, but they are usually focused on a particular subject.
So what can you expect when you attend a WordCamp event? Based on the numerous amounts of videos and photos taken from attendees, you can expect a whole lot of fun in an atmosphere that promotes social interaction.
The first WordCamp conference was held in July of 2006 in San Francisco. Matt Mullenweg pulled this event together in only three weeks time and ended up with about 300 people in the Swedish American Hall. The first international WordCamp event was held in Beijing China on September 1st, 2007.
Check out the BlogHerald to see if there will be WordCamp in your area, or start your own.
Posted on 15th March 2009 in Conferences | No Comments »