Archive for category Wordpress

Good News For Scheduled Post Wordpress Users

There was some problem with the new Wordpress 2.9 release that occurred a few weeks ago: complaints were rolling in that scheduled posts were not publishing. I didn’t experience the problem (I hadn’t any scheduled posts), so I don’t know if the issue affected any of my blogs. But the Wordpress dudes have solved the problem with the release of 2.9.1.

After over a million downloads of WordPress 2.9 and lots of feedback from all of you, we’re releasing WordPress 2.9.1. This release addresses a handful of minor issues as well as a rather annoying problem where scheduled posts and pingbacks are not processed correctly due to incompatibilities with some hosts. If any of these issues affect you, give 2.9.1 a try. Download 2.9.1 or upgrade automatically from the Tools->Upgrade menu in your blog’s admin area.

I know quite a handful of Wordpress users who will be happy to see this! Since it’s not a security release, I don’t thunk it’s a critical update. However, I usually update when I can. just so I don’t have a huge update to do the next time another major release is issued.

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Another Great Wordpress Theme Site

Believe it or not (!!), I’ve started up some new blogs! :D So I spent quite a few hours looking over my options. I checked out Drupal, Joomla, and b2evolution platforms for possible choices… but Drupal was difficult to manage and had very limited choices. Joomla looked too complex, and b2evolution was too plain. So I reverted back to Wordpress. When it comes to blogging, I really need a variety of nice themes. I’m willing to slog through technicalities and database manipulating, but when it comes to nice themes, I draw the line. By FAR, Wordpress has the best themes around. And there are plenty of exceptional-quality themes, too. Here’s one: Template Lite Wordpress Templates. (This is not a sponsored post!). I have used some of their themes, and I think they are beautiful. They are very artful, and free! I’m going to use one o their new ones, Sunset Farm, on my new blog very soon. I’ll be sure to let you know about the grand opening. ;) Check out Template Lite for free WP themes. I’m very impressed with what’s there.

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How To Keep Your WordPress Blog Secure

In case you haven’t heard, there’s a virulent worm spreading and hacking Wordpress blogs that have not been updated to the latest version, 2.8.4. Wordpress founder Matt Mullenweg advises everyone to update their Wordpress blogs:

Right now there is a worm making its way around old, unpatched versions of WordPress. This particular worm, like many before it, is clever: it registers a user, uses a security bug (fixed earlier in the year) to allow evaluated code to be executed through the permalink structure, makes itself an admin, then uses JavaScript to hide itself when you look at users page, attempts to clean up after itself, then goes quiet so you never notice while it inserts hidden spam and malware into your old posts.

The tactics are new, but the strategy is not. Where this particular worm messes up is in the “clean up” phase: it doesn’t hide itself well and the blogger notices that all his links are broken, which causes him to dig deeper and notice the extent of the damage. Where worms of old would do childish things like defacing your site, the new ones are silent and invisible, so you only notice them when they screw up (as this one did) or your site gets removed from Google for having spam and malware on it.

I’m talking about this not to scare you, but to highlight that this is something that has happened before, and that will more than likely happen again.

Hacking blogs and worms are not new to bloggers, whether you have Blogger or Wordpress, but I certainly didn’t like to read Mullenweg’s “this is something that has happened before, and that will more than likely happen again.” :yikes:

The only thing Mullenweg has to say about future hacking is:

There is only one real solution. The only thing that I can promise will keep your blog secure today and in the future is upgrading.

I admit, I sometimes wonder if hack attacks are built by certain people who use such attacks to get everyone to upgrade. This particular worm is relatively harmless, and easily detectable. I’ve heard of horrible hacker attacks, where entire blogs are wiped out or are used as vehicles to spew p*rn and other filth. This worm seems quite tame, and leaves behind broken links, which is easily detectable. Did someone create this worm simply to scare Wordpress users into forcing them to update their blogs? I’m not saying I believe this is so, just that there is that possibility. Maybe there’s more to this worm than is being publicized… But if that’s all the worm does, what else could be the motive?

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Wordpress.com vs. Wordpress.org

A fellow blogger recently asked, “What’s the difference between hosting yourself and just doing it with wordpress.com?” I get this question a lot, and I realize I have never written a post about it. So I thought I’d explain.

Wordpress.com is the website where you can start up a free blog and get it hosted for free on the Wordpress servers. It’s something like Blogger, another free blogging company. And, just as with Blogger where your blog’s domain has a “.blogspot.com” after it, all the free Wordpress.com blogs have the “.wordpress.com” after it. For example, I have a Wordpress blog called www.newyorktraveler.wordpress.com. It’s free for me– it was free to create, free to set up, and it’s free for me to maintain.

Wordpress.com blogs have stricter regulations than Blogger blogs. Wordpress does not allow sponsored posts; you cannot access the database files to your blog, which means you cannot customize it wholly and you may only choose from a select (albeit large) group of blog themes; you cannot place widgets or ads in your sidebar (such as Entrecard, Adgitize, etc). And last I heard, unless it changed somewhere along the way, Wordpress inserts ads into your blog periodically.

Wordpress.org is the website that showcases the blogging software (the “platform” they call it) that you may use for free on your own hosted blog. The Wordpress.org software is installed onto your web host’s server– you install it. It’s not difficult to install, but it’s a technical process even though web hosts have made it as easy as possible. I recently installed two new ones for my daughters, so this is all fresh in my mind.

Wordpress.org software hosted on your own web hosted server will NOT assign a domain name for you. You must register one yourself, at eNom, Godaddy, or even through Google (which has the least expensive option, at $10). Your domain name is a “house address” of sorts. You want to build a dwelling located at that house address, but you need two things– a house and a rented lot. The “house” is the Wordpress.org software and the “rented lot” is the web host you choose.

I’ll discuss more about getting a self-hosted Wordpress.org blog in the near future. I hope this helps clear up a little about the difference between Wordpress.com and Wordpress.org blogs.

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Dumping Blogger for Wordpress

I’ve spoken out quite a few times about the foibles of using Blogger as a blog-hosting platform. I started out on Blogger, way back when they were Blogspot before Google took over… and it was OK, having a free blogging platform to work with. But I quickly learned that Blogger is extremely limited, and, now that Google had got ahold of it, rather controlled. I still have a few Blogger blogs skulking around, but I am most happy with my self-hosted Wordpress blogs.

I’m bringing this up again because of a recent spat with Blogger over the weekend. For about three days, when I tried to visit Blogger blogs, I got the following page:

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Gosh, for a day or two, I thought there was actually something wrong with my router or my computer! I did a virus scan and found nothing. I rebooted the router, changed the IP address, and tried again. The same error message. Slowly I began to realize that it was Google/Blogger’s fault, not mine. And just think– all those Blogger blogs that were unavailable, and that were inaccessible! :-p Very poor.

So once again, if you are serious about blogging, or think that someday you may be– I am enthusiastically recommending that you go with your own hosted blog. It’s not hard to set up. Sure, there’s a learning curve, but WOW it’s the difference between night and day. And I do recommend Hostgator for web hosting. I have tried several web hosting companies, and no one comes close to Hostgator in reliability, service, and professionalism. I’ve helped quite a few people get established on Hostgator with their own Wordpress blogs, and I could certainly offer you some help if you need it. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions. If you want to get serious about blogging, ditch the Blogger and get your own space!

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