Blog Exercises: Battling the Blue Funk

My mother just sent an email saying she was in a funk. Ten minutes later I got a phone call from a friend asking to visit to help her get over the “winter funk – summer blues” – her words. I just got over my blue funk a couple weeks ago. Funks are mini-depressions, short […]

WordCamp 2008 San Francisco – Great Fun. Pictures Don’t Lie.

WordCamp 2008 brought WordPress fans from around the world to San Francisco. I am always stunned by the lengths so many people take to travel so far for WordPress. Their passion and dedication is to be applauded as every one brings their unique perspective to a WordPress event and the WordPress Community. And they bring […]

Weekly Digest: WordPress Tips, Guest Bloggers Party On, and More WordPress and Blogging Fun

There are less than three weeks left as part of the two months of guest blogging fun celebrating the two year anniversary of WordPress.com and this blog. This month is dedicated to WordPress tips. This is the Weekly Digest from Lorelle on WordPress. To subscribe to the Weekly Digest category of Lorelle on WordPress, you […]

The Magic and Fun of Incoming Links

On your WordPress blog in the Dashboard, or on your WordPress.com blog on your Blog Stats panel, you will find Incoming Links. If you aren’t using WordPress, you can find your incoming links through Technorati with: http://technorati.com/search/example.wordpress.com And through Google Blog Search with: http://blogsearch.google.com/blogsearch?q=link:http://example.wordpress.com/ So what is so magical and fun about incoming links? Incoming […]

WordPress.com Blog Bling: Fun Font Bling

Why not dress up your WordPress.com blog with some font bling? So far on this series on WordPress.com Blog Bling, I’ve covered how to using images, logos, and badges to decorate your WordPress.com blog, how to add horizontal and vertical lines and smilies, and Social Bookmarking Submit Links on WordPress Blogs, including WordPress.com blogs. In […]

WordPress 2.1: Template Tag and Function Changes

I’m just beginning to dig into some of the template tag and function changes in WordPress 2.1, as are many volunteers covering the WordPress Support Forums and WordPress Codex. Here is a DRAFT list of some of the template tag and function changes I’ve found in WordPress 2.1. If you know of any others or […]

WordPress Server Crash – Well, That Was Fun

Yes, well, that was fun. NOT. If you didn’t figure it out, the WordPress.com servers took a stumble again for many hours today. The promise is that Matt and his team of developers and fixers have fixed this so it won’t happen again, but then whose counting. Thanks to everyone for protecting our precious data […]

WordPress Pluggable Functions and Plugins by Nadgouda

My new found friend, Abhijit Nadgouda @ iface, has a new article on WordPress Pluggable Functions and Plugins that takes a great inside look at WordPress Plugins and their functions. What is so cool about this is that, without hacking, i.e., without changing any existing code in WordPress, I can change its behavior through plugins. […]

Blog Exercise: When Was the Last Time You Got Personal

I walked into a friend’s home and found the fridge covered with refrigerator art from her seven year old. The traditional home often features such childhood artwork but this was extremely precious as the child has learning disabilities and drawing. The artwork was beautiful. I stood there transfixed at the crude scribbles, trying to find […]

Blog Exercises: Become Your Own Fan Blogger

Fan blogging is one of the most challenging types of blogging. Fan blogging is blogging about a celebrity, television show, movie, sports team, sports player, criminals, or other groupie subject. Today’s blog exercise examines the art of fan blogging and how to learn from fan blogging to create your own fan club around your blog. […]

Blog Exercises: If You Had a Dream Speech

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed. “We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.” I have a dream that one day out on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the […]

Blog Exercise: Inspired by Photography

We are all inspired by photography, a picture that motivates and inspires, that moves us, sometimes to the point of changing our perspective on a subject or on our life. With all of the power found in photography, over the next few weeks I will be offering Blog Exercises with the emphasis on getting you […]

Blog Exercises: Backups and Alternatives

I didn’t expect to return home after a meeting this morning to find I have no telephone or Internet access on this bright sunshine, calm weather May day. I’ve got classes to prep for, sites to review for students and clients, article deadlines, these blog exercises to publish and keep to my year long commitment, […]

Blog Exercises: Prepare for Summer

It’s Editorial Calender check-in and check up time. May is the shift from spring to summer. From blossoming flowers to green leafed trees casting shade, the weather is changing, bringing warmer days to the northern hemisphere and colder temperatures down under. For those of us living in the Pacific Northwestern United States, we are experiencing […]

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 […]