Websitetology

WordPress is more than just blogging software, it’s a very extensible and easy to use Content Management System- that happens to get amazing Google love.

Everyday, we come across new extensions that turn WordPress into the perfect vehicle for some niche business. It doesn’t always mean all of the bugs are worked out- since this is Open Source Software- but it does mean we have a good start on customizing a tool into exactly what a client needs. Right now, we’re about to start work on an orthodontist’s site, and this online booking system extension might come in handy! It’s not quite out yet- but the preview looks interesting.

Clearskys.net Blog » Blog Archive » Introducing StayPress
StayPress is a collection of plugins that will turn a standard vanilla installation of WordPress or WordPress MU into a property management and bookings system. Of course when I say Property, I actually mean any bookable resource of which there is a finite availability. So the StayPress system will be able to manage property rentals, hotel room rentals, conference rooms and centres, B and B’s, training rooms, bands, etc…

The new StayPress system takes over from the previous clearskys.net collection of plugins and brings everything together into a more manageable and co-ordinated group.

Whilst there will obviously be a downloadable version of the StayPress plugins, we are also planning a hosted version of the system for those who do not want the trouble of running their own website.

Of course, if you are working with The Next Wave, we would be happy to configure and set this up for you.

It seems there is quite a bit of frustration with the new “Add media” controls in WordPress 2.5

The 2.5.1 update didn’t fix them- but, at this point, enough people have griped that the development team has to know they laid an egg with this part.

I just grabbed this whole post from the support site to give you the run down, the link at the bottom of the post is from someone who choses much more colorful language to describe his experiences-

WordPress › Support » Problems/steps backward with Add Media functionality
I was quite eager to try the add media functions in v2.5, but it seems either I am missing something or there are some fundamental problems.

Add Video
This seems fundamentally broken. I cannot believe that any user would expect that this would only create a link to a video rather than embedding the actual video. The only good news seems to be that using YouTubes embed code now works in a post without needing to use a plug-in like Easy Tube.

Add an Image
While this works–and the ability to upload multiple images is a plus–the interface to produce even basic functionality seems to have taken a step backwards. Case in point: I wanted to upload an image and have it right-justified with text wrapping around it. I had to go through no less than three dialogue boxes to achieve this.

Step 1: A box for uploading the image and adding ALT text.

Step 2: Requires the user to then click on Gallery for the ability to edit ALT text again, plus set image link, size and basic justification. I am not sure why this cant be rolled into the first step and I am not sure why all the options for justification cant be included here.

Step 3: In order to get the text to wrap, I then need to select the places image, click on the Image button, which pops up a dialogue box similar to what we had in the previous version, which gives the kind of control over the image that SHOULD be in Step 2. And, oddly, the justification selected in Step 2 is not reflected in this dialogue box.

With 2.5, its suddenly more clicks and LESS intuitive than it was before to perform a pretty basic use of an image in a post. It really does seem like at least one of these three steps could be eliminated. In the end, I can get what I want, but now its more involved than it used to be, with a workflow that is not at first obvious.

Add Audio/Add Media
I have not tried these yet, but fear that Audio will produce similar results to video. And its not entirely clear what “Add Media” is for. Flash content? Something else?

But my real issue is with video and these extra steps in just using simple images. Unless someone can show me that I am missing something here. Any help welcome.

If you follow the link, there are some good comments- including mention of the “Flexible Upload” plug in which we are about to start testing.

For the more colorful post- I can’t even post the link- go here.

Due to the fact that Worpress decided to get rid of the “Press It” function until 2.6, I have recently had the need to post the code that will allow you to use the “Press It” feature on your own.

As it turns out, it is supposedly very hard to post code in Wordpress. If you just copy and paste your code in, Wordpress will turn your quote marks into “Smart Quotes”. They look pretty, but do not work with code. So I set about finding a plugin or some other method to correct this.

Everywhere I looked people were recommending different methods. From using plugins and custom fields, to manually editing, and to online converters. I tried them all, but they either didn’t display the code correctly, or messed up my formatting site wide.

So here is my solution, it may have been suggested before, but I sure couldn’t find it with hours of searching and testing. Simply insert this code into your style sheet:

pre {
width: 95%;
overflow: auto;
padding: 10px;
margin: 1em auto;
font-family: "Courier New", Courier, mono;
background-color: #ddd;
color: #555;
border: 1px dotted #999;
}

Now, when you paste your code into the Wordpress editor, highlight it, and select the preformatted option from the “Format” drop down menu.

The pre tag will preserve your quote marks, spacing, indenting, and other elements.

And thats all you have to do. Your code will work when copied and pasted from the browser. If you have a long line of code, instead of running over everything, this will make a horizontal scroll bar to contain it.

Note: Wordpress may apply separate <pre> tags to each line when you select it from the drop-down menu. (I have no idea why, it defeats the whole purpose of <pre> tags) To get around this, either manually add <pre> and </pre> before and after the text under the HTML tab in the edit screen, or apply the formatting with the code all as one line, and add the line breaks in afterward.

We’re still waiting to confirm a day with our host facility- so we’ve decided to put up a doodle date scheduler and see what happens: the dates we’re considering are: April 2008 (23, 28 or 29)

Go to http://doodle.ch/93t487inecfcraq2 and confirm your choice of dates. see how a web 2.0 tool works

The moment we either have 6 confirmed people preferring a date- or confirmation from the facility, we’ll set it in stone.

This is a web 2.0 experiment. Lets see how it works.

UPDATE: It worked- first 3 people all chose the 29th and the room is confirmed.

Sign up here: http://www.websitetology.com/?page_id=247

Oh Noooooo…..

My favorite function in WordPress seems to be missing from the admin pages of Word Press 2.5 rc1 (and from 2.5 after it’s been released) Might be because they claim to have removed javascript from the admin- as well as the AJAX functionality. It’s due to return in 2.6 (but, my students can’t wait!).

So, what to do? If you are upgrading- your old Word Press press it bookmark will still work. If you are doing a new install, you’ll have to make a book mark with the following as the url:

javascript:if(navigator.userAgent.indexOf('Safari') >= 0){Q=getSelection();}else{Q=document.selection?document.selection.createRange().text:document.getSelection();}location.href='http://www.YOURDOMAIN.tld/wp-admin/post-new.php?text='+encodeURIComponent(Q)+'&popupurl='+encodeURIComponent(location.href)+'&popuptitle='+encodeURIComponent(document.title);

Make sure you copy the whole thing- and replace YOURDOMAIN.tld (top level domain) with your own domain name. ie. websitetology.com for this site.

Step by step on how to make a Pressit bookmark for Wordpress 2.5

1) use Firefox.

2) Bookmark any page (I prefer to save this in the “Bookmark Toolbar Folder” so it’s easily available

3) Go to “Organize Bookmarks” under “Bookmarks” and find the bookmark you just made

4) Right click on the bookmark and choose “Properties”

5) Change the name to “Press-it name of your site”

6) Copy the above code to the location field

7) Make sure you have your URL instead of “www.YOURDOMAIN.tld” ie www.websitetology.com for this site

Save the bookmark- and now- you are free to use the wonderful pressit- like this tutorial outlines.

Hope this helps- and that the code doesn’t get mangled by WordPress. works for you.

Someone said on the hackers forum: “The analogy I use is that Categories are like a book’s table of contents, and Tags like its index.”

However, be aware that categories that are actual search terms are very strong Google magnets.

So, instead of using a category “lines we carry” think about “High Performance Motorcycles in Dayton OH”  and then use tags to highlight the brands and product names.

Tags are ways to identify the keywords or concepts in each post- categories group the posts in ways that make sense for others. Lately, Google has started dinging sites for putting a single post in more than three categories (which is too bad)- so think carefully about your choice of categories.

Once you have a big audience, the question becomes how do you make it make you money?

The answer is to sell out- or at least sell space on your site. There are multiple options for where to get your ads from, and the preferred plugin to manage it is “ad sense manager” which is a bit of a misnomer since it supports a whole bunch of other sites:

WordPress › AdSense Manager « WordPress Plugins
Version 3.1.x now supports AdSense, AdBrite, AdGridWork, Adpinion, Adroll, Commission Junction, CrispAds, ShoppingAds, Yahoo!PN and WidgetBucks.

Automatic Ad Code Importer for all supported networks. Widgets & Sidebar Modules compatible (as used in the popular K2 theme). Automatic limiting of Ads to meet network T&Cs (Google 3 units/page)

Can’t tell you which ad network to go with- since much of that depends on the kind of audience you attract- but, it’s one way to make a living by blogging.

There is always Google ad sense, but, what if you want to sell even more ad space?

AdBrite is a way for publishers to add revenue to their site.

AdBrite - How AdBrite Works
AdBrite’s aim is to provide our publishers with the most control, best service, and highest payout possible.
Step 1 - Choose Products

Through a single snippet of HTML, AdBrite can serve any combination of the following ad formats:

* Text and banner ads with customizable layout
* Full page ads – A high-paying full-screen ad on the third pageview of your site, shown only once per user per day

Step 2 - Attract advertisers

Anyone visiting your site can buy an ad directly on your site by clicking “Your Ad Here.” You’ll also be listed in the AdBrite marketplace, and represented by our busy in-house sales staff.
Step 3 - Control

You can choose to review each ad before it appears on your site. You can set the price for ads bought directly on your site. You can even have AdBrite show another ad network (your Google AdSense ads, Burst, etc.) if we can’t meet your minimum revenue requirement.

For really high volume sites, you can look to other ad placement services like Doubleclick which is now also owned by Google.

One thing you have to be aware of: once you ad advertising from a remote server, your page load times can start slowing down, which can lose you readers and reach. Some really successful sites can sell their own advertising and serve the ads internally, but you have to have a really targeted audience that advertisers want to reach.

It’s nice when the New York Times writes about blog superstars like Mark Cuban- who gets thousands of comments on a post, but, what about the rest of us?

Everyone knows something about something- at least that’s the premise of Wikipedia. But, when it comes to getting that Google love, the Times has a few good tips:

So You Want to Be a Blogging Star? - New York Times
More to the point, linking to other bloggers is the best way to get them to link to you. Links from other bloggers increase your readership two ways: they send readers directly from other sites, and they raise your ranking in search engine results. A blogger who posts about a hot topic like Eliot Spitzer’s secret life, but has no inbound links, will lose out to one who already has dozens of inbound links from other sites.

Plug yourself. That’s what all the name-brand bloggers do. It’s not bad form to send a short note to a prominent blogger drawing his or her attention to a really good blog you wrote. Some bloggers place links to their sites in comments they write on more established blogs. And some bloggers are on to the trick and refuse to allow it.

A more direct way to draw a crowd is to submit your blog posts to news aggregation sites like Digg, Fark and Boing Boing. Readers vote on how much they like the posts and new readers are drawn to the list of most popular posts. Granted, it helps if your blog post includes a home video of someone being attacked by a cat or really arrogant e-mail messages from a hedge-fund manager. Those get passed around virally in an instant.

You have to think about what you write, how useful it will be to your audience, and how to get connected with other sites. Finding your community and your voice can take a while, but once it’s there- lookout.

Of course, if you take the websitetology seminar, you’ll know a lot more about how all this works.