Blog Exercises: How Much Does Your Blog Cost?

How much does your blog cost? It should be a simple question. Do you have an answer? The costs associated with a blog are the costs associated with any website. There is the cost of the domain name, if you choose to have a custom name. In general, it is about USD $15 a year, […]

Genealogy Blog: The Blog Budget – How Much Does a Blog Cost?

I’ve talked about making a plan and determining which features I will need for my family history blog. Are you overwhelmed yet? In order to determine what you want in your blog, you should start with a plan and that involves asking the easy and hard questions to determine what you want, as well as […]

Website Development – What Needs to Be Done and How Much Does It Cost

Today’s businesses require letterhead and envelopes, business cards, ads in the Yellow Pages, and web pages as part of their business stationary. Even if you have the smallest of businesses with a limited clientele, a website is part of your professional arsenal to attract and keep clients. People new to the Internet or web pages […]

Blog Exercises: Fall in Love with Words

There are certain clues that tell you how much a restaurant will cost. If the word “cuisine” appears in the advertising, it will be expensive. If they use the word “food,” it will be moderately priced. However, if the sign says “eats,” even though you’ll save money on food, your medical bills may be quite […]

Blog Exercises: Own Your Site and Protect Yourself

I hear it every day. A webmaster, developer, or designer does the site owner wrong and the site owner is victimized, helpless, and frustrated with what to do next. I’ve gotten calls in the middle of the night from people around the world trying to get help recovering their WordPress password because their “web guy” […]

The Brute-Force Password Attack on WordPress Sites

My mother emailed me and asked if WordPress was under attack. With all the news of last week’s attack of the Boston Marathon, the attacks on WordPress and other PHP-based web publishing sites was low on the priority list for myself and others, but this is something to take seriously. As we get back to […]

The Secret Recipe of Comment Spam Comments

Mr. Louis Vuitton just sent me a message in my blog comments I’d like to share with you. I share this touching message because it is highly educational when it comes to the art of spam comments, and serves to remind us of why we love having Akismet, the best comment spam fighter, on our […]

Blog Exercises for March

March was a busy month in my Blog Exercises series. Wow, are we already done with the third month in this year long series? The participants explored a wide variety of blog exercises on editing, blogger identity, content organization, and web writing. There were exercises to motivate and inspire you, and help you inspire your […]

Update WordPress Now: WordPress 3.4.2 Released

WordPress 3.4.2 Maintenance and Security Release arrived today, and it’s time to update. This is both a maintenance and security release, therefore it is mandatory, not optional. Recently, I wrote about keeping WordPress updated for security reasons, and I’m singing the same song again. Don’t wait. Don’t hesitate. Use the automatic, one-click update feature. In […]

7 Blogging Steps Even Veteran Bloggers Forget

Originally published in Blogger and Podcaster Magazine and updated. I write for a variety of online and offline magazines. They’ve graciously permit me to republish my articles. Participating in a recent multiple guest blogger event, I edited and review posts by many top bloggers before publishing. I was rather stunned to find that even veteran […]

WordPress Stats and Numbers: Breaking Their Own Records

Working on developing a core of WordPress classes for Clark College and preparing for the next “Introduction to WordPress” college course in a couple weeks, I’ve put together some statistics on WordPress you might find helpful – and stunning. WordPress continues to break records set by others, but more often lately, break records set by […]

Prove It: What Makes You Trust a Website?

What makes you trust this site? What makes you trust me? What makes you trust any website you visit? What is it about the site that earns your trust? I’ve asked this question at most of the conferences and keynotes I’ve given over the past seven years: What makes you not trust a website? The […]

How Much Do You Charge for Web Dev/Design Services?

As part of an ongoing annual survey for the social media industry, Mark Collier offers this year’s “How Much Does Social Media Cost Companies in 2012?” report on our industry. This is a significant survey and mostly matches the ones coming out of the WordPress 2011 State of the Word survey from self-employed respondents, WooTheme’s […]

Prove It: It’s Starts With Defining Who You Are

Who are you on the web? How do you describe yourself? What words do you use to tell the world who you are, what you stand for or represent, what you do, how you do it, and why they should want to get to know you and work with you? Preparing to teach my WordPress […]

Tips for Blogging September 11 Ten Years Later

Over the past few weeks I’ve listened, read, watched, and pondered a quilt of stories around the World Trade Center attacks of September 11, 2001, as the world celebrates/honors/remembers the event 10 years later. There are first hand stories of those who were in the buildings, rescuing people or escaping; stories by watchers, waiters, victims, […]