Now, if that’s not incentive enough to upgrade, I don’t know what is! Have you upgraded yet?

Related posts:

1. WordPress Security
2. Photo Dropper WordPress Plugin
3. The Easy Way to Put YouTube Videos On Your WordPress Site or Blog

This month, we’ll explore security measures you can take to protect your WordPress website/blog from malicious attacks big and small.

According to Matt Mullenweg over at the WordPress Development blog, although there are many solutions available for WordPress security, “The only thing that I can promise will keep your blog secure today and in the future is upgrading.”

He continues:

WordPress is a community of hundreds of people that read the code every day, audit it, update it, and care enough about keeping your blog safe that we do things like release updates weeks apart from each other even though it makes us look bad, because updating is going to keep your blog safe from the bad guys. I’m not clairvoyant and I can’t predict what schemes spammers, hackers, crackers, and tricksters will come up with with in the future to harm your blog, but I do know for certain that as long as WordPress is around we’ll do everything in our power to make sure the software is safe. We’ve already made upgrading core and plugins a one-click procedure. If we find something broken, we’ll release a fix. Please upgrade, it’s the only way we can help each other.

I have two recommendations for you today:

1. Read the full article excerpted above. It won’t take long, it’s not uber-technical, and you’ll understand better why getting and staying upgraded is your first and best line of defense.
2. Upgrade today! (Instructions here.)

(WordPress.com users – you’re covered. You’re always upgraded.)

Related posts:

1. Get a Measure of Your WordPress Security Level with the WP Scan Tool
2. WordPress 2.7 – I'm Lovin' It!
3. 13 Plugins Make My WordPress World Go ‘Round

I’ve been asked several times whether I’d be willing to re-open WordPress Summer Camp now that the craziness of summer has died down and the answer is: Yes!

All of the lessons are there, ready and waiting for you to go through – no pressure, no schedule, and I’m still monitoring the site for questions and comments. You’ll have access to camp until May 31st, 2010, so you’ve got lots of time to incorporate the tips and tricks you’ll learn.

I’ll keep the gates open until September 30th October 31st, so if you’re interested, go sign up.

Related posts:

1. WordPress Summer Camp is Coming!
2. Interview with Tom Volkar: WordPress Summer Camp 2009 Sneak Peek
3. Sales Pages in WordPress? Yes, You Can!

“I hope that all of your summer camp participants will listen, and I also hope that you won’t limit that interview just to that audience. That needs to be shared with everyone.”

I interviewed Tom Volkar, my coach and mentor, on the topic of his experience as a blogger. Tom’s blog, Delightful Work enjoys a loyal following and is a shining example of how to create community through blogging. Tom has – get this – a 20:1 comment per post ratio! In this interview, Tom shares:

• why, as a coach, he decided to start a blog
• the importance of authenticity and transparency in blogging to attract your ideal clients
• how blogging has helped his coaching practice
• how he created that awesome 20:1 comment per post ratio
• how he uses social networking in conjunction with blogging
• and his #1 tip for new bloggers just starting out

Camp Starts August 3rd – Early Bird Discount Ends Sunday, July 26th!

You can save yourself $50 PLUS get 30 minutes of one-on-one coaching or coding – whatever you need – if you register for WordPress Summer Camp before Sunday, July 26th! You’ll have access to all the content until May 31, 2010, so no worries if you’re going to be busy the first week of August. Register anyway and have 10 months to go through all the information you’ll learn inside the camp gates!

Related posts:

1. WordPress Summer Camp is Coming!
2. WordPress Summer Camp Re-opens!
3. New Sites – November 2009

If you want to cut to the chase and get a 33% discount, click:

Could you use a little help with your WordPress site or blog? You see, I know from my conversations with you and my clients that there are really two basic reasons you’re not getting the most out of your WordPress site or blog: Overwhelm and overwhelm.

1. Overwhelm when you log in and just kinda sit there and stare, wondering what to do…afraid you might do the wrong thing and break something.

AND

2. Overwhelm because you have a bazillion things to do in each of your 24 hours and while you might have a long list of things you’d like to do with your site or blog…they remain on your to-do list because you don’t know how to do them and don’t have the time to stop everything else and go hunt down the answer.

I feel for you, whichever camp you’re in (pun intended. LOL) So, one morning back in March…during my kids’ Spring Break, actually…(I planned to take the week off. Yeah, well…uhhh…that didn’t happen)…I was lamenting the approaching summer and how to keep Lexi (my daughter) entertained this year. I Googled summer camp in Tulsa for ideas on how to keep her occupied…and it hit me: Summer Camp! WordPress Summer Camp! Yeah! That’s what we need!

So that’s what we’ve got. Come to camp, join the fun, and “get your blog on!” Check out the activity schedule to see all we’ll be covering, and remember – you’ll have access to all this WAY after the week is over…like all the way ’til May 31, 2010 when I’ll be shutting it down to prepare for…yeah, you guessed it…WP Summer Camp 2010!

For less than $100, you get a truckload of WordPress training and 10 months to absorb and implement it.

Even the busiest of schedules can handle that…

PLUS – if you register before July 26th, you get 30-minutes of coaching or coding – whichever you need – at no extra charge!

Have questions? Contact me or leave a comment below.

See you at camp!

Related posts:

1. WordPress Summer Camp Re-opens!
2. Interview with Tom Volkar: WordPress Summer Camp 2009 Sneak Peek
3. WordPress 2.7 – I'm Lovin' It!

WordPress 2.8 Highlights

* Theme Browser and Installer
* Ability to add Custom Headers
* New drag-and-drop widgets admin interface and new Widgets API
* New ways to customize dashboard widgets
* Syntax highlighting and function lookup built into plugin and theme editors.
* Configurable Views on Management Pages.
* Faster Loading Admin Pages

Check out this great review, or the WordPress Codex (documentation).

Plug-ins That I Use that Don’t Like 2.8 (…yet)

When I upgraded to 2.8 and logged back in, my Dashboard was blown away. So, I deactivated all my plugins and checked it and it was fine again. That meant that one (or more) of my plug-ins was the culprit. So, I went through all my plug-ins (and you know I’m a plug-in addict, so it took awhile) and activated them one by one to see which one was blowing it up. Turns out there were more than one. Here’s my list:

Broken Link Checker – I’m going to miss this one for awhile…it’s pretty handy and shows me all the links I have on my site that don’t work. (I don’t knowingly put links on here that don’t work, but sometimes links break when what I’m linking to changes or moves. Like Feedburner…all the links I had on previous posts broke when Feedburner moved to Google, and this handy little plug-in lets me know when that happens.)

Traffic Getting SEO Plugin Free Version – finds the best SEO plugins available for wordpress and then optimizes their settings so you don’t have to. Saves you time and helps get you more traffic. This is a fairly new plugin from Jeff Johnson, so I’m not surprised it blows up with 2.8. I just hope Jeff gets on the stick and gets it playing nice again soon.

WP Ajax Edit Comments – this one I suspect you guys will miss more than I will, because as I can just hop into the dashboard to edit my typos, but hopefully it’ll be fixed soon, too.

WP Auto Tagger – this is a plugin that was recommended by the Traffic Getting plugin, so I haven’t been using it for very long.

XHTML Video Embed – Ok, this one makes my Dashboard blow up, but I haven’t seen any other problems on the site, so I’m tolerating the blown up Dashboard so that the videos I have on the site will work properly. If you guys notice any weirdness with the videos, please contact me, ok? Thanks.

Yet Another Related Posts Plugin – Returns a list of related entries based on a unique algorithm for display on your blog and RSS feeds. This is another favorite of mine, so it’s also another one that I hope gets fixed sooner than later.

I’ll be checking these frequently until I see that they’re working again and I can reactivate them. When I can, I’ll let you know, in case you use any of them, too.

Related posts:

1. How to Install New Plug-ins in WP 2.7
2. Give Extra Link Love by Using the CommentLuv Plug-in
3. WordPress 2.7 – I'm Lovin' It!

A friend introduces you to someone. First thing out of their mouth is, “Will you marry me?”

You walk in a new restaurant. The owner greets you with, “Would you like dinner delivered to your home every night?”

Crazy, right?

What would you think? You don’t know the person your friend introduced from Adam and you haven’t even had a chance to try the food at the new restaurant yet – so it’s pretty clear your answer to both would (at best) be, “I don’t know” but more likely, “No!” They both seem pretty desperate to be asking something like that upon your first encounter, don’t they?

And so it is with folks who use (or, in my opinion misuse) the What Would Seth Godin Do plug-in and other plugins like it.

Just this morning I clicked an interesting link in Twitter and was taken to a blog I’d never visited before. And what greeted me?

The Blog Post Title

by [blog owner name] on January 25, 2009 in [Category]

The blog post, itself…blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah

Come on, now…I haven’t even read your post yet and you’re asking me to subscribe?

Now, I’m going to give this person (and everyone else who does this) the benefit of the doubt and assume they were concentrating on things like the fact that these plug-ins really do increase your subscriber base, and having things “above the fold” gets them more attention, and so on. Those things are all true.

But none of it matters or is going to work if you appear desperate.

Just one little change will make everything all better: Have the plug-in put that message at the end of the post, not the beginning.

Then your visitors get a chance to read your post and decide if they want more. And it’s not ‘in their face’ upon arrival at your site. And you don’t look desperate, you look helpful.

Big difference.

P.S. The What Would Seth Godin Do plugin is a great plug-in with some really great features – despite the fact that it inserts the message at the top of the post or page. If you’re using this plug-in, you can differentiate between new visitors and returning visitors and display a different message for each. My suggestion would be to welcome the new visitors without mentioning subscribing to your feed. Just make them feel special and thank them for stopping by. Use a different plug-in to insert the subscribe message at the end of the post.

Related posts:

1. Give Extra Link Love by Using the CommentLuv Plug-in
2. NoFollow, DoFollow – Do You Know or Even Care?
3. DIY SEO: Step 5 – Make Navigating Your Site Easy

The feature I want to “show and tell” today is the ability to reply to comments from the admin dashboard!

I KNOW!

No more having to go to the public side of your site, find the post and comment like your visitors do. You can actually stay put in the admin dashboard, approve the comment (if it’s in moderation) and reply to the comment right there! (Click the picture to get a larger view so you can see what I’m talking about.) This feature is going to save us a lot of time!

If you’d like me to do your upgrade for you, just contact me. (I’m scheduling upgrades for Thursday now.)

Related posts:

1. Color Schemes for the 2.7 Dashboard
2. Link to Your Own Content Without Mucking Up Your Comments
3. WordPress 2.8 is Available! (and my list of plug-ins that don't like it)

Features I Love

Configurable User Interface: You can arrange the the sections of every screen in the dashboard the way you want them. At first, that might not seem like a big deal, but it really is. If you don’t use things like custom fields, handmade excerpts or trackbacks – hide them and get them out of the way! Only fill your screen with the functions you use!

Plugin Settings Are Easy to Find Now: No more having to check ‘Manage’, ‘Settings’ and ‘Plugins’ to see where the settings for the plugin you just installed live. They’re pretty much all in the same place now (with just a few exceptions) and that place is ‘Settings’. Makes sense…finally.

Publishing Options Are Clearer: They’ve really done a great job making clear whether you’re saving a draft or publishing a post. The buttons you click indicate specifically what you’re doing. The ‘Save’ button (which used to mean save a draft if you hadn’t previously published, or save the edits if you had previously published) now says ‘Save Draft’ if you haven’t published yet, and ‘Update Post’ if you have.

New Plugins Can Be Added Without Using FTP: Adding plugins to your installation is a much more integrated process now. You don’t have to leave your dashboard at all. Just search for the one you want, click a button to download it from the plugin directory and save it on your computer. Then click another button to upload it to your site. One more click activates it and bam! You’ve just installed a new plugin!

Uploading Images is MUCH Easier: Until now, if I wanted to upload an image or other kind of media to my media gallery, I had to pretend I was writing or editing a post. There wasn’t a way to get to that upload functionality directly. Well, now there is. Yay! That’ll save me several clicks!

If you want to see more about what’s new and different about 2.7, here are 20 Must See Features.

Take a Test Drive!

You can play with the demo site to get an up-close and personal view of what all has changed and improved.

Preparing Your Blog/Site

Afraid your blog or site might blow up if you try to upgrade? I was, too, so this week, I downloaded Release Candidate 1 (the pre-release version of 2.7) and installed it on this site. I figured if 2.7 might blow something up if my clients upgrade, I better find out and be my own guinea pig so I can warn them.

As you can see, this site is alive and kickin’ and doing just fine. The only things that blew up when I upgraded were the plugins I was using to add functionality that is now a part of WordPress. That makes sense. All in all, I’m happy, happy, happy. (And no longer so jealous of WordPress.com users. I have just about what they have, now.)

So, if you’re wondering whether things will blow up for you, or not, first make sure you’re upgraded to version 2.6.5 (the latest one) and then check these resources for more information:

WordPress 2.7 Core Update Host Compatibility

WordPress 2.7 Theme Compatibility

WordPress 2.7 Plugin Compatibility

Note: These are lists published at the WordPress site, but they are neither exhaustive or definitive. Just what we know at this point. For example, there are literally hundreds of themes out there, but this list only shows those that have been tested on 2.7. If your theme is not on the list, don’t assume it’s not compatible just because it’s not on the list. It might not have been tested yet, that’s all.

Related posts:

1. WordPress 2.8 is Available! (and my list of plug-ins that don't like it)
2. The Easy Way to Put YouTube Videos On Your WordPress Site or Blog
3. WordPress 2.7 Feature: Reply to Comments from the Admin Dashboard

Over the years, all of my clients in this business have fallen into one of three categories:

Group 1: You Do It, I Don’t Want Any Part of It! – People who’ve decided they need a website, but don’t know the first thing about how to build one and really don’t want to learn. They (usually, but not always) also have a fear of technology to some degree, a mental block when it comes to things online. They may or may not be aware of this fear in those terms and may or may not be willing or able to admit it to themselves or me, but it’s there, nonetheless. It’s held them back from leveraging the Internet to grow their business, tell their story or do their thing in a bigger way.

They hire me to stand between them and that big, bad Internet, and put their business, their story, their thing out there for all the web to see, knowing that they don’t have to change much about what they do, and pleased as punch that they no longer have to say “I don’t have one” when someone asks for their website address. They’re “online” now, and can take as much time as they need to “figure it out” because they can have me do it in the interim.

Group 2: I Could Do It – But You’re Faster! – People who are technically savvy and quite comfortable with life and business online who’ve realized that their website has been on their ‘to-do’ list for way too long and will likely remain there unless they outsource getting it done. These folks know what they want done, understand what’s required and can “speak the language”, and could probably even do it themselves, but need to delegate the project to another pair of hands so they can have it in this lifetime. Once their site is built or updated, they’re happy to take it back and maintain it themselves. They’ll call again when they’ve got another major project and sometimes they’ll call for some one-on-one tutoring in between. Some of these clients transition back to having me maintain it because their business has grown and they don’t have the time or it’s more cost-effective to delegate to me.

Group 3: Everyone Else – The people somewhere in the middle. Not surprisingly, this is the biggest group for me.

As you might imagine, meeting and serving the needs of this kind of diversity kept me hopping. Not that I don’t like to hop, mind you, it just got a little crazy, at times. A bigger problem, though, was that I could only take on so many new projects because maintaining the sites I built was not practical for the majority of my clients. Making simple changes required me, and as my client base grew, I had less time to take on new projects. Worse, because I’m a stickler for customer service, I could never take a real day “off”, much less a vacation. That stunk. So, I had to find a solution that worked for them and for me.

How Blogging For Fun Changed Everything
About three years ago, I started my first blog over at Blogger. As I recall, there was nothing more magical about that choice than it was the first option I was exposed to because it belonged to Google, and I used Google A LOT.

At the time, I blogged because it was easier for me than writing in a journal. Blogging made sense to me because a) I type WAY faster than I write with a pen (and much neater, too) and b) it was online and fit nicely with the fact that I spent 18 hours a day with my butt planted in this chair, fingers on a keyboard. But it wasn’t long before Blogger started pissing me off.

I didn’t like any of Blogger’s templates, really, and changing them was a pain in the butt, even for me. On top of that, I still couldn’t take a vacation unless I wanted to have nothing new posted while I was away because even though you could start a post and save it as a draft, you couldn’t set it to publish on a certain date. Then a blogger friend I’d made, who was more fed up with Blogger at the time than I was, made the switch to WordPress. For weeks thereafter, I read about how much she loved WordPress and all things she could do now that she couldn’t do before at Blogger. I grew curiouser and curiouser, and started exploring WordPress.org.

Looking back, the funniest part is that I didn’t know you could build a free blog (like you could at Blogger) at WordPress.com. My friend had not only switched to WordPress, but she got her own hosting account at the same time, which explained (I now know) many of the groovy changes I was seeing at her blog. I began to wonder if I could convert an entire site to WordPress without making it look like a blog. Guess what? I could. And did. My coaching website was my guinea pig. What you see today is called a magazine-style blog (yeah, a little more complicated than a traditional website built in WordPress, but SO worth the extra development time.)

That went so well, I converted all my other sites to WordPress, learned a WHOLE LOT in the process, and was able to spend a whole lot LESS TIME (once built) maintaining my own sites because working in WordPress is so easy. Then it dawned on me: if I converted my client base to WordPress, it would be easy for them, too. I could free up a truckload of time and holy smokes – maybe even take a day off! Even the most timid, techno-phobic among them could easily make simple changes here and there as required. One client, in particular, beamed with pride when she said, “Suzanne, it’s so great to be able to say I maintain MY OWN website!”

Why All This Might Matter To You
More bang for your buck – plain and simple.

• A WordPress site costs a lot less to build than one built from scratch. Why? Because you’re building on an existing solid foundation, it’s object-oriented, like Legos on steroids.
• If you can type a subject, an email and click send, you can type a title, a post and click publish. No longer are you stuck waiting on me to do things for you – you can maintain your site yourself now, if you’re so inclined.
• WordPress, itself, is like catnip to the search engines. So you hit the ground running with a distinct SEO advantage, without all the head scratching and mind bending. Out of the box, it’s like that.
• The built-in RSS functionality allows you to alert those interested in your updates immediately and without all the headache of email.

Most of all, I have yet to ask myself, “I wonder if I could do ____ in WordPress?” and not be able to find a way. Because it’s constantly evolving and stays abreast of emerging web trends, it’s never boring. I can create great WordPress sites for my clients that meet them at whatever experience and skill level they’re at. Finally, I have a solution to offer that meets the needs of all three groups of clients I have. Gotta love that!

Related posts:

1. Get Started Blogging at WordPress.com
2. Blogs Aren't Just For Writers
3. Sales Pages in WordPress? Yes, You Can!