Create an Awesome Home Business » Wordpress

Losing the All-in-One-SEO Plugin

Martin — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 04:30:29 +0000

When Thesis 1.7 was released I reviewed it and bemoaned the fact that I couldn’t make use of its SEO features and drop the All-in-One-SEO plugin.

The reason was because removing the All-in-One results in all the META tags on all the articles on the blog being removed as well. That would mean I’d have to go through all 270+ articles and manually re-set them.

But here’s why I love being part of the Thesis community: I learned how to copy the All-in-One tags, on every post, into the relevant fields in Thesis by means of a simple SQL query.

So, hey presto, another plugin bites the dust. What a pleasure!

Here are the links to the relevant articles in case you want to do the same:

The article in the Thesis Answers section that provides the SQL query code (you’ll need to log in to DIYThemes before clicking the link):

The SQL query code.

The step by step process you need to follow:

The step-by-step process.

Instructions on how to run the SQL query:

How to run the SQL Query.

Not being able to use the Thesis SEO functions for post and page META tags on this site has been bugging me since 1.7 was released, for these reasons:

I’m still on my drive to reduce the number of plugins I’m using
Plugins add bloat to your site, increasing its foot print on your server and, in many cases, slowing down site load times
The more plugins you have the more options there are for things to go wrong

That said, the All-in-One-SEO plugin has been a wonderful plugin and served me well. If you’re not running Thesis (or another theme that provides the same functionality) I’d say it’s a must-have.

But being able to remove it and reduce bloat, speed up site-load times and reduce the chances of things going wrong is too good an opportunity to pass!

I’m a happy bunny now

Cheers,

How to Insert an Opt-in Form on WordPress

Martin — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 07:54:01 +0000

I wrote a post recently on how to insert an Opt-in form on a WordPress blog with no sidebars.

It’s attracted a lot of views from people searching how to create an opt-in form on WordPress, so I figured a description of how to insert one in a blog that does have sidebars might be useful:

Step 1: Create your opt-in form in your Autoresponder service provider account.

With Aweber you get the ability to style your form in your Aweber account and then copy/paste either the basic HTML (which you can edit if you want) or a short JavaScript snippet into your blog.

Choosing the JavaScript version enables you to update the style or wording of your opt-in form in your Aweber account and have it automatically update the form wherever you’ve placed it – neat, especially if you use the same form in different locations!

You’ll need to make sure your opt-in box is not wider than the sidebar you’re planning on putting it into. So check that width before creating your opt-in form, and size it accordingly.

Step 2: Add a text widget to one of your sidebars

If you’re new to WordPress here’s a description of how to manage widgets.

Once you’ve added the text widget simply paste the code provided by your Autoresponder service provider into the window that will open as soon as you drop your widget into the sidebar.

Step 3: Save and close your widget.

Once you’ve pasted the code into your text widget click ‘Save’ (1 in the picture below) and then ‘Close’ (2 below).

And you’re all done.

Cheers,

WordPress 3.0 and Thesis

Martin — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 23:30:09 +0000

WordPress 3.0 was released towards the end of last week and brought with it some major changes.

The biggest is the integration of WordPress and WordPress Multi-User (MU) – previously two separate packages.

Some others were:

A new Navigation system, allowing you to add Categories or other special links to your navigation bar (the same functionality that Thesis has had for a while)
A new default theme (really very nice – takes full advantage of the new nav bar functionality and includes the ability to use different header graphics on different pages)
A centralised ‘Updates’ screen where you manage updates for the core code, plugins and themes
The ability to re-set your username in the Admin screen from the default ‘admin’ to something else on setting up a new site – a long-overdue improvement to security.

There are a lot of back-end improvements for the benefit of theme and plugin developers and, apparently, more than 1,217 bug fixes. That’s a lot of bugs..!

So, for Thesis users, how did the upgrade go and what problems popped up?

I upgraded all 5 of my WordPress/Thesis sites and they all went as smooth as ice.

Two problems have surfaced for Thesis users, and DIY are planning an interstitial release to address them. Until that release, though, here’s what you’ll notice:

Thesis Custom File Editor

When you try to access your Thesis Custom File Editor you’ll receive an error message:

‘ Fatal error: Call to undefined function use_codepress() in /homepages/18/d140152044/htdocs/wordpress/wp-content/themes/thesis_17/lib/admin/admin.php on line 42 ‘

The simplest fix is to comment out line 42 in the admin.php file by placing two forward slashes ( // ) at the beginning of it.

To do that you’ll need to download that particular file, make the change and upload it back to your server. Be sure to back it up first..!

Update: Girlie from the Thesis support crew has created a modified admin.php file that fixes the problem much more easily. Full details (and download link) here. (You’ll need to log in to DIYThemes before clicking that link).

A more detailed description of these two problems and how to fix them is set out here.

Upgrading from WordPress 2.9.2 and Thesis 1.7

Apart from those two items, and if you’re running an existing, single instance site on WordPress 2.9.2 and Thesis 1.7, you won’t notice any differences after upgrading other than a slightly lighter appearance to the admin screens.

And, of course, the new Updates and Menus items in the main menu bar.

All the processes for writing posts, managing widgets, creating links and everything else remain unchanged.

Before upgrading make sure you back up your database and site files, and deactivate all your plugins.

After upgrading reactivate your plugins manually, one by one. This is a much safer way of discovering if one of your plugins is causing a problem, because you’ll know which one it is..!

If you want to use the multi-site functionality you’ll need to edit your wp-config and .htaccess files, and you’ll need to get a fixed and dedicated IP address.

You’ll then be able to operate multiple sites as sub-domains or directories of your primary domain.

After activating the multi-site functionality you’ll see some more menu options. These are hidden if you’re using the single site configuration, which is why there are so few visible changes.

If you want more details on activating multiple sites, visiting the WordPress codex is probably a good place to start.

Summary

For Thesis users, then, the upgrade is smooth and problem-free apart from the 2 items I covered above.

That could easily be affected by plugins you’re running, of course – which is why you should deactivate them before upgrading.

In reality, though, those items won’t affect you unless you regularly access your custom file editor or want to create custom menu bars via WordPress rather than Thesis.

You may also notice an irritating quirk: whenever you login you’ll be notified (falsely) that there’s an update available. Irritating, but not the end of the world.

If you’ve come across any upgrade problems, particularly if you’re using Thesis, leave us a comment and let us know about it.

Cheers,

How to Schedule Posts in WordPress

Martin — Wed, 26 May 2010 23:30:33 +0000

I took myself off on holiday recently and decided use WordPress’ scheduled publishing feature to keep the content flowing on this site while I was lying on the beach.

I simply wrote some articles before I left and scheduled them to be published every other day while I was away.

It’s such a useful feature that I thought it may be helpful to write a description of how to use it – so here goes:

Step 1: Write and preview your post in the normal way.

Step 2: Once you’re satisfied with the article you would normally hit the ‘Publish’ button. Don’t!

Instead, click the edit link just above the ‘Publish’ button – circled below:

Step 3: When you click that link the date and time fields will be displaid – circled below:

Specify the date and time at which you want your article to be published (1) and click the ‘OK’ button (2)

Step 4: After clicking the ‘OK’ button the ‘Publish immediately’ text will be replaced by ‘Schedule for: [the date and time you've selected]‘ – circled below:

And the text on the ‘Publish’ button will change to ‘Schedule’.

Step 5: Click the ‘Schedule’ button. The ‘Post published’ confirmation message that you normally see after you publish a post will, instead, say ‘Post Scheduled for [the date and time you selected]‘.

Step 6: Once you see that confirmation message you’re all done.

OK – enjoy the beach.

Cheers,

How to Add Post Images to WordPress

Martin — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 04:21:02 +0000

Post images – those thumbnail-sized images that I use at the start of each article – can help strengthen the impact of your message, as well as providing some visual appeal.

But how to add them?

I saw a question recently where someone asked the forum what plugins were available to help manage post images.

As I’ve said before, I’m on a crusade to reduce the plugins I use on this site, so the idea of adding a plugin to do what WordPress can already do perfectly well seems unnecessary.

The release of WordPress 2.9 even included the ability to trim and re-size images – meaning even less need to use a plugin.

So here’s how I manage and add my post images:

Step 1: I find an image that bears as much relevance as possible to the post subject

Step 2: I use Microsoft Picture Manager (included as standard in MS Office installations from 2003 on) to compress the image.

Simply open the image in Microsoft Picture Manager and click the ‘Edit pictures’ button on the toolbar. I select the ‘Email messages’ option in the ‘compress pictures settings’ box.

Step 3: Click OK, and save your image. (You may want to save a copy of the original before editing it).

Step 4: Upload the compressed version of your image to a folder on your server. For each of my domains I have an ‘images’ folder that sits outside of my WordPress files.

This results in those images not being backed up each time I back up my WordPress based sites. If you upload them via WordPress, and they’re stored in the Uploads folder, they are.

Step 5: Place your cursor where you want to add the post image (I place mine immediately before the first word) and click the ‘Add an image’ button above your toolbar.

Step 6: Select the ‘From URL’ option and type in the full URL of the file in your ‘images’ folder.

Step 7: Add your title and alt tags, select the alignment and click ‘insert image’.

You’re done.

Following that process ensures that my post images are all consistently sized and positioned.

And if you’re a Thesis user you have another option: instead of inserting the image via WordPress you can add your image URL into the Post Image field below your editing window.

The added advantage here is that, if you’re using the Teasers layout, Thesis will automatically re-scrunch your image so that you have an even smaller thumbnail in your teaser, as well as the post image.

Although I don’t use that option on this site, I do on one of my travel sites.

As you can see – no need for a plugin

A while ago I wrote a more detailed description (including some different options) of how to insert images into WordPress articles. You can find it here.

Cheers,

Do You REALLY Want to Build Your Own WordPress Theme?

Martin — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 04:04:30 +0000

‘I can’t find any WordPress themes I like so I’m going to build my own’ is a statement I see a lot on places like Twitter.

If you’re an ace coder (really ace) with a good understanding of SEO (really good), that’s a great route to follow.

There’s also the option of using Artisteer, a platform developed specifically to enable you to create your own themes.

But if there’s one thing I’ve learned over the past year or so it’s the importance of the underlying code in a theme.

It can have a big impact on the speed with which your site loads and its search engine friendliness.

And its stability, particularly after WordPress upgrades or when you add new plugins.

(I wrote more on that here).

So if your blog is purely there for your enjoyment and you’re not too fussed about any of those things, then I say go for it.

But if you use your blog for business, and stability, speed of response and SEO are important to you, then I’d go a different route.

I’d find a premium theme with the best underlying code possible and learn how to customize it.

If your coding skills are good enough for you to consider building your own theme, they should certainly be good enough to enable you to customize a premium theme to your liking.

And you can do so in the knowledge that not only is the underlying code stable, efficient and properly optimized for the search engines, but it will be upgraded over time.

All you need to do is focus on the design and layout.

About 2 years ago I switched from the WordPress Dream Theme to Thesis, and at first I was disappointed. The WP Dream Theme looked great and I received a lot of compliments on my site’s layout and appearance.

But as I learnt how to customize Thesis I became a lot happier.

I’m neither a top line designer nor a hot shot coder – but I know enough to be able to produce WordPress sites in a variety of layouts, with designs that I like.

And I have the comforting knowledge that the underlying code means my sites are stable, fast loading and well optimized.

This is not, by the way, a plug for Thesis. You can follow this approach with any top premium theme.

It’s simply a better way, to my mind, of getting yourself a site design that you like. Unless you’re a hot shot coder and a top line designer.

Cheers,

How to Insert an Opt-In Form on WordPress With No Sidebars

Martin — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 05:04:34 +0000

Here’s an interesting question I saw recently: my theme is not widget-ready, so how do I insert an opt-in form on my WordPress blog?

There are a couple of ways of doing that.

1. Using the What Would Seth Godin Do Plugin

This plugin was originally designed to offer different personal greetings, posted at the beginning or end of each article, to new and returning visitors, while inviting them to subscribe to your RSS feed.

But you can use it to contain any message or code – including an opt-in form.

I’m currently using it on this site to invite people to visit my Useful Resources page (see the bottom of this article), but I’ve used it in the past to hold an opt-in form.

All you need to do is copy the opt-in form code, provided by your autoresponder service provider, and paste it into the ‘Message to New Visitors’ and ‘Message to Returning Visitors’ boxes in your What Would Seth Godin Do settings screen.

Be sure to retain the styling (or create your own), set the repetition value to 0 and select your message location.

I’ve selected ‘after post’ and ‘posts only’ on this site, but the other options may work better for you.

Your opt-in form will then automatically appear at the end of each post (or whichever location you’ve specified).

2. Creating an Opt-In Page

The other way you could do it would be to create an opt-in page.

You would need to find a way of enticing people to go to that page, which you could do with a link at the bottom of each post and a catchy title in your menu.

In this case I’d strongly suggest you first install the Raw-HTML plugin. This is because the WordPress text editor has HTML filters which restrict the HTML you can use in the HTML view of your new post or new page screen.

I wrote a review of the Raw-HTML plugin here.

Be sure to read the instructions on how to use it and then create your opt-in page using the HTML view. Paste your autoresponder service provider’s code into the location where you want your opt-in box to appear.

Using the Raw-HTML plugin will ensure you’re able to style both the page and the opt-in box as you want, without the restrictions imposed by the WordPress HTML filters.

If you have any questions, or any other ways to add an opt-in form to a WordPress blog with no sidebars, tell us in a comment.

Cheers,

WordPress Security is Not Just About WordPress

Martin — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 13:48:20 +0000

One of my customer’s WordPress installations was hacked and turned into an attack site over the weekend.

I got a plea for help on New Year’s Day because she couldn’t view her site or log in – she just got an error message whenever she tried to do either.

When I reviewed the file that was referred to in the error message I found some scripts had been added.

Two other files in the wp-includes directory had also been updated at the same time, so I deleted all of them and replaced them with clean versions.

When I then accessed her site to check it was working OK, I got two Malware files dumped onto my PC – so they had infected more than the 3 files I found.

My first step was to clean up my own PC. Luckily AVG, CleanUp! and Malwarebytes did a great job on that, so I was back in action again in an hour or so.

My next step was to access my customer’s site via FTP to delete the database and the entire WordPress installation.

Then I set up a new database and installed a clean version of WordPress.

In the process I took the following security steps:

Created unrelated usernames and passwords for the database – long and complicated
Changed the wp- file and folder prefix to something else
Changed the default ‘admin’ username to something else – long and complicated. I set out a process for doing that here.
Created a long and complex password
Installed WP-Security-Scan and checked all the file permissions
Made sure the WordPress version was not visible
Installed Login Lockdown to lock out anyone attempting to use an incorrect user ID or password to log in
Installed a blank index.html file in the wp-content/plugins and wp-content/themes directories (to prevent anyone seeing what plugins or themes were installed)

And two and a half hours after I’d completed everything her site was hacked again.

They got in because they had a copy of her FTP login details, which they’d obviously stored so they could use whenever they wanted to.

Although I’d given strict instructions for her to change her FTP password, she’d not had a chance to do so after I’d finished everything.

And the lesson is…

Nothing could more clearly illustrate the point I made in this article that WordPress security involves more than just making your WordPress installation secure.

You need to consider your PC and your FTP accesses – i.e. your entire online environment.

There’s no knowing for sure how the scammers had got hold of her FTP login details, but some of the ways would include:

Intercepting email which contained them
Having a keylogger (malware) installed on her PC which captured them and sent them back to the scammers
Intercepting them during an FTP transfer.

So the message is this:

In addition to taking all the security precautions I referred to above on your WordPress installation itself, make sure your PC is (and stays) clean and, if you’re regularly uploading stuff to your WordPress site, use SFTP rather than FTP.

It goes without saying that you should be using one of the Internet Security products from a reputable supplier. And that means the paid version, not the Anti-Virus version which is usually free.

But I also use two other products:

Malwarebytes, which is an excellent product and free to download.

A couple of years ago I got a Trojan on one of my PC’s which I couldn’t get rid of. McAfee couldn’t find it, Spybot S&D couldn’t find it and Adaware couldn’t find it.

But Malwarebytes did.

And since then I install and use it on every PC I own and every PC I’m setting up for someone else.

As long as you have one of the Internet Security products running you only need to run Malwarebytes manually every few days. Make sure you update it before you run it, because they release new signatures every day.

And, by the way, although I’m delighted with the Internet Security product I’m using, Malwarebytes still picks up stuff that it misses.

The other product I use (also free) is CleanUp!. This focuses more on clearing out your temporary files, but I needed it the other day because I opened a copy of the infected file from my customer’s site to review it on my PC.

Although I didn’t save the file, a copy was still sitting in my temporary files folder and CleanUp! zapped that one for me.

Summary

Long story short, then:

Make your WordPress installation as secure as you can – follow the steps above
Make sure your PC is clean and stays clean
Use SFTP rather than FTP
Backup your site (database and system files) at least weekly. Preferably more often. But be careful not to restore an infected version.

Can Changing Your WordPress Theme Affect Your Search Engine Love?

Martin — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 09:15:43 +0000

Yes, it can is the short answer.

I used to think of a theme as nothing more than a nice colour scheme when I first started blogging. As long as I liked the colours, and as long as it had enough sidebars, I was a happy camper.

How wrong I was.

WordPress themes have progressed enormously since those days (only 3 years ago), but even back then if I’d known what I was doing I’d have paid a bit more attention.

Here’s how they can impact your search engine love:

Free Themes

The first thing to be aware of when looking for free themes is that there’s nothing to stop the author from hiding links in it.

Which means that by activating his theme you could be providing links back to his site (if you’re lucky), or to some spam or scam site if you’re not.

The search engines will not be pleased about the spam and scam links.

Even if he hasn’t hidden links in his theme, the author’s coding skills will have an impact on how easily the search engines can find their way around your blog, and understand what it’s about.

And that’s important for good search engine rankings.

So yes – even at the most basic level, changing themes can affect your rankings (either positively or negatively) just based on:

Whether or not the author has hidden links in it
The quality of the his coding (CSS, HTML and PHP)

Don’t get me wrong – there are some very good free themes out there, but there are also some pretty awful ones.

So if you’re going for free, you need to make sure it’s a good one.

Premium Themes

WordPress caused a bit of a stir a while ago when they decided that the only themes they would approve had to be GPL – free to download and install. For a short while Premium Themes became the target of some speculation.

But, having used the Thesis theme for a year now, and another premium theme prior to that, I can tell you that there’s no way I’d ever go back to using free themes.

You not only get rid of the chances of being stuck with hidden spam links, you greatly increase your chances of having well coded CSS, HTML and PHP. This, as I said earlier, will help the search engines.

Plus, modern premium themes provide all sorts of additional functionality that builds on the flexibility of WordPress.

For example, some themes (Thesis among them) enable you to set META tags and settings both for your blog as a whole and for each individual post and page within it.

This greatly improves the visibility of your blog and articles to the search engines, and it enables you to drop SEO related plugins.

For example, I used to automatically install the All-in-One-SEO-Pack and Robots-META plugins on new blogs. Now I don’t need to, because Thesis gives me the same options.

Of course, if you weren’t using any SEO plugins to start with, this will bring you a whole bunch of SEO benefits you didn’t previously have.

Further, many premium themes will enable you to change the layout and design of your blog by selecting various options in the control panel.

So as long as your theme is capable of it, and your imagination can cope, you no longer need to go hunting for new themes. You can change your blog’s appearance whenever you want to and not lose the settings and SEO benefits you’ve built up.

Themes these days, particularly premium themes, should be thought of as supplementary platforms which extend the functionality of WordPress.

As such, the quality of their coding and the functionality they provide can have a big impact on your blog’s search engine rankings.

How to Change Your WordPress Username

Martin — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 06:25:43 +0000

I was helping someone get their blog configured the other day and we came to setting up WP-Security-Scan – one of the plugins I do recommend.

It takes you through some pretty straightforward steps that will strengthen your WordPress installation against mass bot hack attacks.

One of the recommendations it makes is to change your login user name from the default ‘admin’ to something else.

Here’s how to do that:

From your hosting control panel click on PHPMyAdmin. You’ll see a screen like this:

Find and click on the ‘Databases’ link (circled above).

The next screen you’ll see is this:

It lists all your databases on the left. I’ve blacked mine out, but trust me – those are your databases!

Click on the database of the blog on which you want to change your login username. You’ll come to this screen:

Look for the users table. Unless you’ve changed your prefix it will be called wp_users. My users table is circled above.

In the users row click on the first icon: browse (2 above). The next screen you’ll see is this one:

If you’re the only person with a login you’ll see just one row there. If you have others on your blog with logins, look for the one that’s called ‘admin’, and click the ‘edit’ icon, 1 above (and circled).

The next screen you’ll see is this one:

In the ‘user_login’ row above look to the right and replace ‘admin’ with a new user name. When you’ve typed a new user name click ‘Go’ at the bottom right of the table (it’s not shown in this screenshot).

After clicking ‘Go’ you’ll be taken back to a screen that displays your new user name in the ‘user_login’ field:

OK, you’re all done in PHPMyAdmin now, so you can log out if that option’s available or just close that window if it’s not.

Next go to your WordPress login screen and login with the new username and your existing password.

Go to your profile screen and you’ll see your new username displaid:

That’s it – you’ve changed your WordPress login username and made your blog more secure as a result.

Create an Awesome Home Business » Wordpress

Losing the All-in-One-SEO Plugin

How to Insert an Opt-in Form on WordPress

WordPress 3.0 and Thesis

So, for Thesis users, how did the upgrade go and what problems popped up?

Navigation Menu

Thesis Custom File Editor

Upgrading from WordPress 2.9.2 and Thesis 1.7

Summary

How to Schedule Posts in WordPress

How to Add Post Images to WordPress

So here’s how I manage and add my post images:

Do You REALLY Want to Build Your Own WordPress Theme?

How to Insert an Opt-In Form on WordPress With No Sidebars

WordPress Security is Not Just About WordPress

And the lesson is…

Summary

Can Changing Your WordPress Theme Affect Your Search Engine Love?

Free Themes

Premium Themes

How to Change Your WordPress Username