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 […]

Blog Resources: Researching the Research, Finding the Facts, and Seeking Supporting Evidence

As part of my ongoing series on blog resources, covering the many online resources I use to help me blog, you can tell that I don’t deal with rumors or guesses. I like facts. I don’t mind a few estimates, but I like being right when I make a claim or statement, so I work […]

Weekly Digest: Catching Up, Speaking San Francisco, Future Post Mixup, Talking to Blogger Talks, and More

Yikes, it’s been a rough few weeks. Along with some nasty business stuff, which is actually normal in my line of work, I was supposed to be on my first real, non-working vacation in 14 years, which turned into a workation. What should have been normal was much less fun than usual as my husband […]

Blog Challenge: Testing Your Blog’s Accessibility

I’ve talked a lot over the years about how important it is to design your website or blog to be accessible. There is a growing number of bloggers and blog readers who are reading your blog right now with a screen reader which reads your blog to them, or some other magnification or screen customization […]

Are You Deaf?

No, this is not an accusation but an invitation. As many of you know, when it comes to web accessibility standards, I’m in your face. Recently, Monika Thon-Soun of Webdesign-in.de and Texto.de reminded me that the web and blogosphere is filling up with sights and sounds that the visually and hearing impaired can’t access, or […]

Cancer Blogs and Bloggers

Over the past year, National Public Radio’s blog and radio series called “My Cancer” has been an amazing portraly of life living, and dying, with cancer. Called NPR: My Cancer, it is frank and open, discussing the daily aspect of life with cancer. A lot of times, I sit at my computer, trying to figure […]

Blog Struggles: The Search for Blog Content

The first topic I want to cover in this new series on Blog Struggles, discussing the trials and tribulations of blogging, is about the issue of finding content for your blog. Finding content. I have a problem right off the top with that phrase. Blog content can be found anywhere, but saying you have to […]

Banning a WordPress Spammer With .htaccess

By John Pozadzides (“How the heck is that pronounced?!?”) Uugh. I’ve got this problem comment spammer. Today alone he posted over 1,000 comment spams on my blog. You can imagine how I felt about that. Did I mention I am a Marine (Semper Fi)! So, even though Akismet was doing it’s job, I was about […]

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 […]

Is Your Site Ready for the New Mobile Internet?

By Douglas Bell Now before you start getting any ideas in your head about those baby cell phone web browsers and WML (Wireless Markup Language), just stop right there. This article is talking about the new mobile internet. The new mobile internet doesn’t contain the baby web pages that you may be used to on […]

How to Turn Off Snap Shots Link Preview on WordPress Blogs

Snap Preview Anywhere, known as Snap Shots, Snap Shots Integrator, mShots, and many other names, is considered by many as one of the most annoying “gimmicks” on the web, continues to be enabled by default on WordPress.com blogs. Many new bloggers are still “testing” this gimmick which allows a thumbnail preview or feed view of […]

Weekly Digest: Celebrating Two Years of Lorelle on WordPress.com With Guest Bloggers and Memories

Instead of my normal weekly digest, I’m going to do two things this week. First, I want to celebrate all of the wonderful guest bloggers who have honored this blog over the past month with their fabulous posts about blogging, and those who will be making a repeat performance or joining us for the first […]

Why Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is Still Important

By John Pozadzides There is a war of words being waged around the concept of Search Engine Optimization with one side claiming that SEO is dead, and the other claiming SEO is everything. The reality lies somewhere between these two extremes (as reality often does) so it’s important to understand both the history and the […]

Melissa McAvoy Offers 8 Tips for Accessible Blogging

Melissa McAvoy, a web accessibility and usability specialist, shares 8 Tips for Accessible Blogging, a quick list of tips to help you make your blog or website accessible to everyone, including the blind and visually impaired. A lot of the tips make good sense whether or not you are physically impaired. 2. Always include meaningful […]

Comment Spammers Never Stop, Even When Your Blog is Down

Just a reminder. If you let your comment spam fighting stop for even a few seconds, comment spammers will get into your blog. As many users are upgrading to the newest version of WordPress, their comment spam fighting guard is down as WordPress Plugins must be deactivated during the upgrade, and sometimes a few glitches […]