Whooping Woopra Blog Statistics Program

I’m rarely totally and completely blown away by anything, and yesterday at WordCamp Dallas, John Pozadzides blew the whole crowd away with his new blog statistics program, Woopra. John is a blogger, author of the popular One Man’s Blog, and an experienced web user, web company owner and business man. He understands the importance blog […]

Changing Blogging Programs Won’t Stop Comment Spam

I recently saw a question posed in a forum on whether or not the person should switch from WordPress to Blogger, Movable Type, or one of the other blogging programs and platforms in order to stop the accumulating amount of comment spam on their blog. Honestly, do you really think comment spammers are paying attention […]

Blogging Gear: Start With a Good Blogging Program

Bloggism.net has a two part article series with reviews and feature lists of the most popular free blogging tools. In part one, WordPress gets the best review (yeah!), and Movable Type, Drupal, Greymatter, b2evolution, and Geeklog are also covered in part two. A blogger just like any other professional needs gear, surprisingly a lot more […]

Advertising on Blogs – Affiliate Programs

Use-it’s look at affiliate programs is worth a read if you are considering adding advertising and income sources to your blog. An affiliate program is a way for sites to pay for incoming traffic: when site A links to site B, there is some mechanism for site B to pay a referral fee to site […]

Huge List of Free Open Source Programs

Wikipedia is an amazing resource and someone has compiled a huge list of free open source programs at List of Open Source Software Packages. The list is broken down by type including math, finance, word processing, assisting technology, file manager, games, media, internet, networking, education, and so many more. If a link is in red, […]

New WordPress Programming Contest

Weblog Tools Collection is announcing a new WordPress Programming Competition – well, don’t get in a rush yet. Actually, the announcement is to look for judges to help to prepare the new contest. Last year’s WordPress Plugin Contest (now renamed) was a huge success and this year’s contest will run from December to May, and […]

Blog Exercises: Blog Work Flows

In “A Sample Blogging Workflow” by my friend, Chris Brogan, he talks about the process of blogging with consistency and determination in mind. Your company has decided to launch a blog, and you’re the lucky blogger. Maybe you’ve even asked for this pleasure, suggested it to the boss yourself. Only now, you have to deliver, […]

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, […]

WordPress Anniversary: Comment Spam Lessons

It’s hard to believe that I’ve learned much from comment spammers over the years. I’ve learned that they are among the most hated folks in the world, yet you have to respect them as well. As I look back on ten years of blogging with WordPress on this 10th Anniversary year, I realized that comment […]

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 […]

Blog Exercises: Add Industry Events to Your Editorial Calendar

In the blog exercise to create an editorial calendar, I gave you many ideas for setting self-assignments and deadlines for content throughout the year on your blog. Don’t forget to investigate your industry to discover events, conferences, and news to add to the calendar. Whether you go or not, take time to research calendars and […]

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: 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, […]

WordPress Course at PCC-Rock Creek in Beaverton

I will be teaching a WordPress Introduction college course at Portland Community College in Beaverton, just west of Portland, Oregon, starting April 3 – June 12, 2013. The course is a hybrid online course meetings Wednesdays from 6-9PM with a minimum of two hours online per week. Called “CMS Website Creation: WordPress,” this 3 credit […]