WordPress Anniversary: WordPress and Evil

As I look back on the ten years of WordPress, there is a dark side to blogging. While many blamed WordPress for the evil, like guns, WordPress doesn’t cause evil, people cause evil. In fact, WordPress, Automattic, and the WordPress Community has fought longer and harder against the evil doers in the world than most […]

Creating Footnotes in WordPress

Among the many techniques students and clients request in my WordPress and blogging workshops and classes1, requests for creating footnotes in WordPress are rare, but they do happen. There are very distinctive differences between traditional writing and web publishing styles.2 Footnotes have been replaced by links to cite a reference or resource to support the […]

Blog Exercises: Trackbacks

Trackbacks are like an invitation to a party. It is also like legitimate gossip. Trackbacks are notes telling you that someone is talking about you. Trackbacks are part of the important connections that form the true sense of the “web” on the Internet. WordPress and most modern publishing platforms generate trackbacks automatically. As common as […]

Blog Exercises: The Content Project Form

In these year-long Blog Exercises dealing with editorial or content calendars, we’re working on exploring all the dates you can add to your calendar, including adding seasonal post content and other date-sensitive blog posts and articles. In this exercise, we’re going to create a content project form. The goal of a content project form is […]

Exploring the Alignment of the Planets in the Night Sky

In anticipation of the planets alignment, I went digging for some cool Android apps to see the stars, and some awesome astronomy blogs to keep myself updated. Let’s start with the awesome astronomy bloggers. Blogging the Stars When I think about those blogging the stars, I don’t think Perez Hilton. I think about those truly […]

Blogrolls Gone in WordPress. How to Save Your Links.

For the past few months, rumors were flying that WordPress was going to remove the Links/Blogroll feature of WordPress. As of August 2012, it is now gone from many WordPress.com. MacManx, Happiness Engineer at WordPress.com, recently stated: The Links section was removed from the core WordPress.org software, which means that it will probably be removed […]

How to Set the WordPress Twenty-Eleven Theme Showcase Slider to Auto-Advance

Using the fantastic and flexible Twenty-Eleven WordPress Theme and its showcase template front page and slider? Wish the showcase slider would slide automatically? I’ve found the answer. The Twenty-Eleven WordPress Theme features a pseudo-static front page template called “showcase.” When set as the “home” page template with the blog as “blog,” you have the option […]

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 […]

Malware Found in WordPress Theme – Protect Yourself Now

I’ve just published “WordPress Theme Malware Prevention and Protection on WordCast, covering the recent WordPress Theme dissection of malware by Otto. The article sums up his revealing analysis of how a Theme malware code integrates itself into your site, even down to the server level, through a twisting path of imaginative code. The code reminds […]

Blogs Offer Communication, Information, and Connections During Disasters

Jonathan Bailey of Plagiarism Today just called me from Northern Louisiana to report that he and his family have survived the evacuation from their home in Shreveport, Louisiana, though Hurricane Gustav appears to have done more damage where they evacuated to rather than where they left from. Jonathan and I were both victims of Hurricane […]

Lorelle at WordCamp 2008 – 260 Ways to Break WordPress

I’ve uploaded my program from WordCamp 2008 in San Francisco to SlideShare and showcased it below. I talked about how important it is that we push WordPress as far as possible, even to the breaking point, to make sure it will work across all operating systems, all hosts, all browsers, all setups – in every […]

Can You Sell Your Blog?

In How to Buy or Sell a Blog, I gave you a list of articles I’ve found about buying and selling your blog, but I wanted to take this conversation even further. What would it take to make your blog be worth buying? In Selling Your Blog: What Are Buyers Looking For and Selling Your […]

Weekly Digest: Lorelle Back Home Finally, Conspiracy Theories Everywhere, Will You Go Naked, and More

After over six weeks on the road (Only six? Felt much longer.) I just arrived home to Oregon in time for the first snow of the year. It was beautiful, but unfortunately gone before I could dig the camera out of the motor home. The cats, horses, donkeys, dogs, land-mates, and husband were all glad […]

Blogs and Conspiracy Theories

Ian of Letters from Home asked me about my article series on the Blog Herald about conspiracy theories and blogs, wondering why I was doing such a series: …what’s the point of this series on conspiracy theories? Why encourage people to muddy the waters further? Is it all in the name of generating hits, traffic […]

Weekly Digest: Lorelle Recovers on the Road, Reports on Conspiracy Theories, With More Challenges and Struggles

I’m finally recovering from an ugly sick and catching up with my behind. SIGH. I’ve got to get healthy as plans are in the works for a very busy schedule next year speaking at a variety of blogging and WordPress conferences and meetings. I’m so excited about getting out and meeting the best of the […]