Blog Design: How Many Columns?

Mark from Weblog Tools Collection offers Two or Three Columns?, his perspective on how many columns a blog should have. I personally prefer one column themes with a minimal second column. Most information that is put on my sidebar(s) is extraneous and could be placed elsewhere. I have also found that some of that information […]

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 […]

A Day of Healing and Suffering at the Clackamas Mall

“I feel greedy.” We stood in the cold outside the Clackamas Mall, arms wrapped around each other, watching the crowd expand to release individuals and couples to step forward and place their candles on the memorial stage. The faces of the two deceased smiled over the mournful group gathered before them. The photographs were snapshots […]

Check Out the New Media Manager in WordPress

WordPress.com users were greeted with a new Media Manager over the weekend. This is the new media uploader coming in WordPress 3.5 when it releases December 5, 2012. For most of us, this is a long-awaited, dream come true. The clunky WordPress Image Uploader is gone, replaced with one more visual and easy-to-use. The announcement […]

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 […]

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 […]

Help Needed with WebVisions WordPress Theme Developers Panel

Webvisions is in Portland, Oregon, May 16-18, 2012, and I’ll be there again this year leading an awesome panel of WordPress Theme designers and developers, and I need your help. For over eleven years, Webvisions has been the go to conference for exploring the future of design, content creation, user experience, and business strategies on […]

Spring Quarter Introduction to WordPress College Course Begins April 10

It’s hard to believe that the first ever full college course on WordPress is coming to an end, with a new one beginning April 10, 2012, but here we are, and time is running out to get your seat in this Introduction to WordPress course. If you live in the Portland, Oregon, or Southwest Washington […]

Counting Number of CMS Downloads with beCounted WordPress Plugin

I’m often asked which content management system for web publishing I recommend. While I’m clearly biased towards you-know-what, at last there is a WordPress Plugin that can help you show others which one they should consider. My friends at beAutomated have taken their powerful beCounted WordPress Plugin to new heights with a live stats comparison […]

Managing Multiple Authors: Author Lists in WordPress

As I continue on with my series on managing multiple bloggers in WordPress, it’s time to explore how to feature your authors in author lists in sidebars and Pages. They’ve done such brilliant work for you, you want to show them off, right? An author list is either a single Page that lists all the […]

SOBCon 2010 Chicago: What Did You Learn?

In May of 2010, over 150 of the brightest minds in online business, web publishing, blogging, and social media gathered in Chicago for the 4th annual Successful and Outstanding Bloggers Conference (SOBCon). It was an amazing experience for all with three days of non-stop business strategies and techniques for online business. And they are doing […]

WordPress Themes: Start With a Solid Framework

Why I Created a WordPress Theme Framework by Justin Tadlock is a good look at the reasons why WordPress Theme designers and developers should work with a framework when designing a WordPress Theme. A strong Theme framework creates a solid canvas upon which to build your WordPress Themes. If you are or considering building WordPress […]

WordPress News on the Blog Herald

The past few weeks of the Blog Herald’s WordPress News reports that I do have been huge. Each one now takes many hours to produce, rounding up all the news from WordPress developers, Plugin and Theme developers, WordPress.com, WordPress fan podcasts and blogs, and the WordPress Community. WordPress 2.7 is the biggest WordPress version ever, […]

WordPress News and Announcements on WordPress 2.7 and More

I’ve just released the latest Blog Herald WordPress Wednesday News on WordPress Wednesday News: WordPress 2.7 Final Features, WTC Plugin Contest Winners, WordCamps, Surveys, and More, and there are some WordPress news tidbits I’d like to call your attention to. WordPress 2.7 Feature List Set Ryan Boren has announced the final WordPress 2.7 features to […]

Scott Reilly: Two Weeks of WordPress Plugin Releases and Updates

In March of 2005, Scott Reilly of Coffee2Code shook up the WordPress Community with 7 Days of Plugins. During that week, Scott created and released: Easy Post-to-Post Links WordPress Plugin: A shortcut code for referencing onsite blog posts by id or post slug name. Obfuscate E-mail WordPress Plugin: Automatically disguise emails within blog posts and […]