WordCamp Birmingham

Monday, September 8th, 2008

Andre Natta and the rest of the planning crew down in Birmingham have been working non-stop to make sure that the first south-eastern WordCamp is going to be a great success.  If you’re into WordPress [ and really, who isn't? ;) ], they’re still looking for both sponsors and speakers.

I have two sessions planned for WordCampBirmingham.  My first session will be "Making WordPress Dance", which will cover some advanced techniques, tricks, plug-ins, and other ways to make WordPress really stand out and look less like a blog and more like a web-site.

I’m also doing a panel discussion with Jeremy Flint on "WordPress as a CMS", which goes well with my other session because part of my first session will briefly touch on how to have a front page that’s not your blog posts - an integral part of a content management system.

If you’ve made the decision to head down let me know via Twitter or Facebook and we’ll make sure to hook up.  I’ve already added a lot of the twitter people and have met some wonderful people who are really into WordPress. 

See you there!

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BluBrry Powerpress Plugin for WordPress

Wednesday, August 20th, 2008

OK, first off, I know I haven’t posted in a while on here, but my goal is at least one post on one of my blogs every few days.  At least I can keep some sort of traffic going with some great post.

Angelo Mandato sent me the newest plugin from BluBrry for WordPress - Powerpress.  If you’ve ever used PodPress to do a podcast, get rid of it and get PowerPress right now.  It’s much easier, sleeker, and the player looks fantastic.

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The player looks great, and auto detects the length of the file for you (no messy settings to adjust).  Here it is in use on http://blog.pigskinspundits.com. (site address updated)

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The settings are much more powerful, and without the clutter of the PodPress interface.  Once again, go get this plugin!

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Custom Branded Google Search within WordPress

Monday, July 21st, 2008

I’ve been playing around with some really cool features in WordPress lately. With my site, and a few others i’ve been working on, I’ve been toying with the “Page Template” feature that allows me to customize which elements show up on a page (like, a sidebar, specific headers, a footer, etc). But, while working specifically on The Film Talk for Jett Loe, I developed/discovered a technique for keeping visitors in your page but giving them the luxury of a Google Search.

This was the post that I had on my corporate site, studionashvegas.  It provides a tutorial on how to integrate Google Search into your WordPress site.  Enjoy!

Read More Here!

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Your Top WordPress Themes

Saturday, July 19th, 2008

(I know this is a weak post, but I’ve been super busy preparing for the new baby to come, and I wanted something I could build on as I go before I prepare an awesome post).

I want this to be a spot people can go to see what other people are using as far as themes go.  If you have an amazing theme (and it has to be unique - not just another crappy free theme that everyone and their mom uses) post it here!

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Have a Question? Ask Dr. Wordpress!

Sunday, July 6th, 2008

I’ve got a contact form on my site for anyone who has a question regarding Wordpress.  Try and stump me - I’d love to have any question, no matter how hard or easy.

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Ask Dr. Wordpress: Importing Blogger Posts into WordPress (Preserving Tags)

Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008

Difficulty: 1 (out of 5)
Topic: Importing Blogger Posts into WordPress (Preserving Tags)

I recently got an email from one of the participants of PodCampOhio regarding an interesting quirk between Blogger’s tags in their importation into Wordpress:

Mitch,

I attended one of your podcamp sessions Saturday. Great job!

I’m moving my company’s blogger.com blog over to a wordpress (.org not .com). I just imported the blogger posts. Is there a way to import tags?

~Tim

First of all, thanks for the kind words regarding my presentation.  As for your importing your posts, a strange thing happens when you import Blogger entries.  The tags you’ve given to your Blogger posts are somewhat lost in translation. They are still there, but you have to convert them.

See, when you import Blogger entries, your tags are auto converted into categories.  This works great if you want to preserve the structure of your previous blog, but if you want them to stay tags, there is a simple solution:

  1. Enter the WordPress Admin panel
  2. Head over to the Manage tab and click on the Categories button
  3. You should see this link toward the middle of the page:

    Link to the category converter

  4. That link will convert all of your categories into tags (as it so aptly says).

So, there you have it.  The best way to preserve the tags from Blogger is to convert them from categories, and the process is very simple and straight foward.

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The Wordpress XML Sitemap Plugin

Tuesday, July 1st, 2008

Chetan over at Blogoninja.com gives a great review of the Wordpress XML-Sitemap Plugin.

XML-Sitemap plugin can be used to create sitemaps of your wordpress blog for Google. This plugin can automatically create sitemap.xml and sitemap.xml.gz files in a matter of seconds:eek:. So now whenever you update your blog just create a sitemap with this plugin in seconds and Google, Yahoo, MSN and Ask.com all will be notified about your updates right through your Wordpress account. You can also create a robots.txt file with this plugin. You can easily set which pages you want to included in the sitemap. And believe me I have been using this plugin since the start of my blog and have never faced any problem with it.:smile: And what I really like about it is that it includes so many features.

It has so much to offer.

  • You can rebuild .xml and .xml.gz sitemaps anytime right from your Wordpress account.
  • Four major search engines i.e Google, Ask.com, Yahoo and MSN can be notified at once.
  • You can set different default locations for your sitemap.
  • You can set the priorities of different pages in your sitemap.
  • The Changing frequency of the pages can also be set by the user.
  • Posts can be prioritised according to the comments it gets.
  • The sitemap’s content can be set by the user.

So guys I’ve used it, why don’t you give it try if you haven’t yet. Go straight to Google XML Sitemaps homepage.

I’ve used it quite a bit as well… submit your XML site to Google, and Google will be notified of roughly when to come back and index your new material.

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So… Why Wordpress? (My Post For Unofficial Wordpress Day!)

Tuesday, July 1st, 2008

I get asked this quite a bit, especially when I’m schedule to speak at a(n) (un)conference.  As I mingle with people in the crowd, the subject turns to WordPress when they ask what I do for a living.  And, inevitably, the question that follows is, “Why WordPress?”

I started blogging back in the days of LiveJournal (I actually used a similar site called blurty) but it was just too plain for me.  There were no designs for blogs then - it was just what color scheme you wanted to unleash onto your text.  I moved on to the BraveNet blogs, then finally settled onto Blogger when I found out you could change the design.  I had a Blogger blog for a long time, and got a good sense on what makes a great blog (content first, subscription options second, and a super design third).

Then, one day, I came across weblogs.us.  They had just migrated from MovableType over to WordPress, and were giving out super accounts (unlimited bandwidth, unlimited space) to give people a chance to try WordPress.  I had plenty of content on my Blogger blog, so I applied and was given space.

That was my first foree into WordPress, and I haven’t looked back.  Over the years (I got my Weblogs.us account about 4-5 years ago) I played with WordPress, trying to understand how it works and how it was different than the other services. Here’s what I came up with

  • There is no better community of people behind a software product than there is behind WordPress.  Period.  Need a hand with something? Post it in the Codex; if people know, they will answer.  Need special functionality for something? There’s probably a plugin already developed for it.
  • Whereas a typical CMS is designed to keep logic and presentation separated, WordPress beautifully intertwines them to allow one to enhance the other.  You can use code to benefit the design, and design the code to look however you wish when it’s displayed onto the screen.  It’s this combination that gives WordPress it’s true power: true and ultimate customization.
  • WordPress can be used for more than just a blog; I have clients who are running entire websites off of WordPress.  Music video channels, corporate websites, and even my company’s site are run on WordPress.  Why?  To edit content easily and without having to dig back into the code to make minor changes.

And so, there you have it.  That’s why I’m so passionate about WordPress, and why I will continue to develop for it until it is discontinued (not likely) or until I retire from web design for good (not anytime soon). It is a software I truly believe in, and one who has not dissapointed me since I switched 5 years ago.

(Oh, and chances are, if you hire me to build your website, you will get to experience how amazing it is too.)

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iWphone: iPhone Optimizer for WordPress

Monday, June 30th, 2008

I get a lot of emails looking for suggestions regarding plugins for mobile use.  I’ve tried a few - and most of them… well, they just didn’t give the clean interface that I wanted for viewing on the web.  Sure, they worked, but they just weren’t pretty (and that’s important for me - I am a designer, after all).

Enter iWphone. This handy little plugin turns even the strangest theme design into a sleek mobile interface perfect for viewing on an iPhone.

IWphone on WordPress shows a sleek, mobile theme for iPhone users.

I highly recommend it, as (so the joke goes) now that everyone is getting a stimulus check, everyone is getting and iPhone (although, nothing beats my Samsung Sync for bluetooth Internet tethering and 3G surfing speed).

Rating: 5/5
Pros: Excellent interface; can edit theme to change colors, fonts, etc.; awesome readability on an iPhone or iPod touch.
Cons: Changing colors/design elements on theme requires knowledge of code.

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10 Things You Should Know About Wordpress 2.6

Monday, June 30th, 2008

Straight from the TechnoSailor blog, Aaron Brazell tells us what we should be looking forward to for the next release.  Some highlights:

  1. Google Gears Support (”It’s Turbo Time”)

  2. XML-RPC Editor Functionality

  3. Post Versioning (Awesome!)

  4. SQL Security - $wpdb->prepare()

  5. Shift-Click Selection of Multiple Checkboxes in WP-Admin (Also Awesome)

  6. More Avatar Options

  7. Page Templates over XML-RPC

  8. Press This (New and Improved!)

  9. Integrated Theme Preview (Again, Awesome!)

  10. Plugin Management Overhaul

He’s got his commentary on the main site, but here’s my take.  I’m looking forward to the Theme Preview, Post Versioning, and Press This features.  I’d be very careful about the XML-RPC protocol; if you even have a slight clue you don’t know what you’re doing with it, turn it off.  It’s super powerful, and can open your blog up to remote exploits if you aren’t careful.

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