Blog Exercises: How Long Are Your Paragraphs?

How long are your paragraphs? Have you measured them lately? One of the telling differences between traditional writing and writing for the web is the length of the paragraph. Look at the example below. Which is easier to read? On the left, the paragraphs are huge, long blocks of text. On the right, the paragraphs […]

Blog Exercises: Random Editing Day

Welcome to the first “Random Editing Day” as part of the Blog Exercises series. The purpose of Random Editing Day is to help you edit and upkeep your site, but also to revisit and revise posts of the past. Throughout this year we are going to have monthly editing exercises to help you flex your […]

Banned, Blocked, and Censored Bloggers

According to the American Library Association, September 30 through October 6, 2012, is a salute to Banned Books week. Banned Books Week is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read. Typically held during the last week of September, it highlights the value of free and open access to information. Banned Books Week brings together […]

Do Not Delete Comment Spam. Mark Spam as Spam.

Is comment spam one of the things that gets you down? Are you taking it personally? Are you confused by comment spam and how to handle it? I’ve been speaking at a variety of meetups lately on web publishing, blogging, and podcasting, and the topics often turn to managing comments and comment spam. “I’ve started […]

Saying Goodbye to Delicious, MyBlogLog, AltaVista, and Larry King

With the announcement that Yahoo! will retire Delicious, MyBlogLog, Altavista and other Yahoo! services, WordPress users around the world will have their blogging habits change. UPDATE: I’ve updated the news on WordCast with Delicious Lives – Yahoo! Might Not. Yahoo! and Delicious announced that Delicious will not close. They are looking at selling or spinning […]

Watching Launch of Kepler Space Mission Live

I love the Internet. As I write this, I am watching the launch live of the Kepler Mission on NASA TV from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The Kepler satellite will be launched into an Earth-trailing solar orbit to get above the Earth’s atmosphere for a clearer view of outer space with its […]

How to Access Banned WordPress.com Blogs

As discussed in WordPress.com Banned Again: Why Aren’t You Concerned?, WordPress.com continues to be a target for censorship and blocking from various countries and groups around the world attempting to penalize the whole for the “wrongs” of the few the courts or governments decide to penalize, those cutting off thousands of blogs from access. I […]

WordPress.com Banned Again: Why Aren’t You Concerned?

According to Brazil: Bloggers united against WordPress.com ban by Global Voices, WordPress.com blogs are or soon will be banned due to a judge in Brazil ruling against a WordPress.com blogger featuring a YouTube video embedded in the blog of a couple having sex. The details of the blogger and content in question is a bit […]

Attack of the Mean Commenter: Blocking Commenters and Comments on Your WordPress Blog

By now, you all should know that you have total control over your blog’s comments, right? You can choose to allow only registered users to comment, delete any comment you want, edit any comment, and do the same for trackbacks. While it helps to have a good comments policy, you still have total control over […]

Protecting Your WordPress Blog

I’ve written extensively about the choices you have in responding to negative comments and bloggers. You can respond or ignore, but never retaliate. However, a few months ago, Darren Rowse of Problogger was the victim of a spammer and hacker and it made me want to jump up and hit back, as I’m sure it […]

Blogging and Social Networking as a Teenager

By Douglas Bell Today is the end of Lorelle’s first month of celebrating two years of WordPress.com and Lorelle on WordPress, and I really want to say congratulations to her. However, while this past month has had many articles on blog writing, SEO, web design, blogging personally and for profit, and of course, a number […]

Battling Referrer Spam

By Michael Hampton Right around the time you realize that people you don’t know are actually reading your blog, you probably are going to start checking your stats to see where in the world they’re coming from. Your web host gave you a package like awstats or webalizer to generate nice statistics and graphs for […]

Monetizing WordPress Plugins

There are a lot of ways you can add ads to your WordPress blog. As part of my month long series on WordPress Plugins, I thought I’d take a glimpse into WordPress Plugins that help you monetize your WordPress blog. WordPress Plugins that add ads to your blogs may assign advertising blocks to specific areas, […]

Blog Navigation WordPress Plugins: Related, Recent, Most Popular Posts and More

As part of this month long series about WordPress Plugins, I’ve been digging deep to find some great WordPress Plugins to help you increase the navigation of your WordPress blog. Navigational tools include showcasing recent posts, related posts, most popular posts, posts by category, breadcrumbs, tags, and so much more. I’ve come up with some […]

How to Install, Configure, and Use WordPress Plugins

WordPress Plugins come in two styles: drop-in and mess with. Those are my terms, not the official ones. Drop in WordPress Plugins are Plugins you upload, activate, and then interact with only through the WordPress Administration Panels. Mess With WordPress Plugins are the ones you install and interact with through the Administration Panels, but they […]