Internet Marketing Notes » Blogging Tips

Upgraded Blog to WordPress 2.8.6!

Jason — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 05:37:00 +0000

WordPress 2.8.6 is out! The release addresses two security problems:

XSS vulnerability in Press This
An issue with sanitizing uploaded file names that can be exploited in certain Apache configurations

It should be noted that blogs with untrusted logged in registered users who have posting privileges will face these security risks.

I’ve upgraded this blog to WordPress 2.8.6 from 2.8.5 without any problems — at least so far!

Tip: If you’re upgrading, as usual, always deactivate any plugins before an upgrade.

Although I could have upgraded WordPress from the admin pages, I did the upgrade using SimpleScripts. SimpleScripts did a barebones backup for me as part of the upgrading process. (A full backup is always recommended though! I’m just too lazy! Anyway, it’s just a 0.0.1 version upgrade…)

By the way, I’ve also given this blog a new look! Perhaps more about it another time.

Super Affiliate Blogger is LIVE!

Jason — Fri, 23 May 2008 06:35:19 +0000

Ever thought of earning six-figure income with blogs and affiliate programs? Well, Gobala Krishnan will show you how in his spanking new product – Super Affiliate Blogger.

Learn the Secrets: Blogging + Affiliate Marketing = Super Affiliate Blogger

Packed inside Super Affiliate Blogger are highly-guarded secrets that has made tons of money for Gobala (a recent marketing campaign earned him $1,365.69 in 3 days, promoting just one affiliate program. Just imagine if you were to promote multiple campaigns…). Here’s what Gobala will show you:

How he made six-figure income with blogs and affiliate programs
How to create profitable niche affiliate blogs from scratch
How to increase your affiliate commissions with PPC (Pay-Per-Click) traffic
How to maximize your PPC traffic with his special WordPress "Landing Pages"
How to get your blog into the first page of Google and get massive traffic
How to make affiliate commissions on "auto-pilot" with almost no effort!
…and much, much more..

What you’ll get with "Super Affiliate Blogger"?

Massive 156-Page Guide To Blogging and Affiliate Marketing
Plug-n-Play "Super Affiliate Pro" WordPress Themes
Plug-n-Play Affiliate Link Tracking and Cloaking System
Plug-n-Play Opt-In Forms Manager and List Builder
The 7-Day "Super Affiliate Blueprint" Quick-Start Guide
Step-By-Step "Screen Cam" Video Tutorials
Lifetime Members Support & Exclusive Forum Access

Why you should get "Super Affiliate Blogger"?

It’s a completely original product (you’ll appreciate the finesse in Gobala’s work)
It’s super-easy to implement
and…it really works out-of-the-box

I think Gobala has really done it this time. He has put together a complete package which should benefit all aspiring affiliate bloggers.

Take action now. (Note: Gobala is offering a special launch price for "Super Affiliate Blogger". Do hurry!).

Click here to get your copy of Super Affiliate Blogger now

Upgrading WordPress using Fantastico

Jason — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 04:55:38 +0000

I’ve just upgraded this blog from WordPress 2.0.4 to 2.3.3 using the Fantastico script library. Yes, I know it’s not the latest WordPress version but that’s the latest version offered to me from Fantastico on my hosting account.

The upgrading process turned out to be smoother than I thought. Before upgrading, I did my homework though. I googled around for possible issues involving upgrading WordPress using Fantastico and I found a couple useful tips:

Backup your existing WP database (In my case, I used the WP backup plugin for this purpose) and WP files.
Deactivate all WP plugins.
Upload a temporary index.php file to indicate to visitors that the site is being upgraded.
Run Fantastico from cPanel. (In my case, the upgrading process was over in seconds!)
Reactivate the plugins one by one and be on the watchout for possible errors. Some plugins may not be compatible with the new version of WP.
If there are errors, it’s possible that the template code is at fault as it’s probably still using the PHP function calls of the older WP version; Upgrade the template or google around for fixes if necessary. (In my case, I had an issue with my modified MistyLook template and I got it fixed fairly quickly by just replacing just one line of PHP code.)

[UPDATE: I've since converted all my Fantastico installations to SimpleScripts. I love SimpleScripts!]

You Might Want to Know This If You’re Blogger

Jason — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 04:42:09 +0000

There’s a few interesting developments in the blog authoring scene within the last month or so.

Here, we’ll take a look at a new WordPress release, a desktop blogging tool and a new Windows browser.

#1 WordPress 2.2

WordPress 2.2 includes a number of new features as well as over 200 bug fixes. What’s new?

WordPress Widgets integration – allows you to easily customize or rearrange certain areas within your weblog. Just drag and drop!
Full Atom support – this is much like RSS.
New Blogger importer – easily import your Blogger posts and comments just by entering your login.
Infinite comment stream.
Better blog protection during plugin activation.
Core plugin and filter optimizations.
Future WYSIWYG support for Safari (Apple’s browser).

#2 Windows Live Writer Beta 2

Blogging over the web can be a painful affair especially if you have a slow connection. Solution? Desktop blog authoring! Microsoft Windows Live Writer (WLW) is one of them. WLW supports most ubiquitous blog platforms out there including Blogger and WordPress. If you have more than one blog, WLW would definitely be useful as you have now a unified way to author and publish your posts.

With WLW, you enjoy speedy WYSIWYG blog editing. Tag support (including Technorati, del.icio.us, etc) is built in.

Beta 2 of WLW introduces the following features:

Inline spell checking
Table editing
Ability to add categories
Page authoring for WordPress and TypePad
Support for excerpts and extended entries
Improved hyperlinking and image insertion
Paste Special
and many more…

WLW is fully extensible with support for plugins. e.g. there are plugins for embedding Flickr photos and videos (like YouTube).

#3 Safari 3 for Windows

Apple’s Safari browser is now available on Windows albeit in beta form.

If you’re running on Windows and you’re feeling unsure how your blog page will be rendered on the Safari browser on Apple, now you can test your page out on Safari for Windows. It’s still buggy in some parts, but overall, it’s fairly usable even in its current non-final form.

Happy blogging!

WordPress 2.1 “Ella” Released

Jason — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 15:21:45 +0000

The latest major release of the greatest blogging engine WordPress 2.1 “Ella” is now available!

It includes tons of new features, including over 550 bug fixes.

If you’re already running WordPress 2.0.x and your hosting company offers Fantastico from the control panel, you may upgrade your existing WordPress installation from there with just a few mouse clicks.

I’ve upgraded one of my sites to WP 2.1. So far all of my WordPress plugins seem to be working fine. However, some of the toolbar buttons in the TinyMCE rich editor failed to appear in Firefox 2.0 but appeared fine in IE7. Strange!

I had wished the WP admin interface to take on a more compact look (with smaller fonts) but it remained almost the same as the previous versions.

I also understand that the popular Ultimate Tag Warrior plugin does have an issue with WP 2.1 in that tags are wiped when a comment is approved. (Yikes!)

So, what’s your take on the new version?

How to Increase Blog Search Engine Traffic by Porting to WordPress

Jason — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 06:34:37 +0000

Here’s a story of how Chris Pearson apparently increased his search engine traffic by 455% in just one month (from September to October).

He made two simple changes:

He ported his blog from MovableType to WordPress
He based his design code on the Cutline framework

Chris built the Cutline framework from scratch with SEO (search engine optimization) in mind.

With some creativity, it just proves how easy it is to implement effective SEO on the WordPress blogging platform. Read Chris’ post for a detailed analysis of the result that he has achieved.

If you’re just getting into WordPress and don’t know where to start, you can download two free chapters of Gobala’s WordPress Adsense System.

You might also be interested to read why WordPress is bettter than other blogging platforms in many ways.

WordPress 2.0.5 (Ronan) Released

Jason — Sat, 28 Oct 2006 04:41:48 +0000

Hi blogging folks! WordPress 2.0.5 (a.k.a. Ronan) is out and is available for immediate download. This release comes with 50 or so bug fixes.

Would I upgrade from version 2.0.4? Probably no. [Update: Oh well, I might consider upgrading. Thanks Brian. ] ~~I’ll wait for the next major release.~~

Useful links:

Blog More Efficiently with Firefox 2.0?

Jason — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 08:02:13 +0000

Finally, Firefox 2.0 Final Release is now officially available for download!

I did a small test against IE7 by loading an existing post for editing inside WordPress admin and this is what I found:

Firefox 2.0 consistently outperforms IE7 by 2 to 3 times when loading the Write Post page for editing. (30 seconds vs 1 minute is definitely significant!)
IE7 pegs at 100% CPU utilization 5 to 6 times longer than Firefox 2.0 during the page load phase.
Firefox 2.0 has a smaller memory footprint than IE7.

Below are the screenshots of the Windows Task Manager when running WordPress in Firefox 2.0 and IE7 respectively:

Firefox 2.0

Internet Explorer 7

This test was done on my old Pentium III laptop running Windows XP Professional SP2. I’ve not had the opportunity to test Firefox 2.0 on my higher-end Windows Vista RC1 desktop yet. Perhaps the results would be different on other configurations. Care to share your experiences?

Conclusion

For me at least, WordPress worked faster and more efficiently when using Firefox 2.0. As a result, my blogging experience is made much more pleasant and productive.

Why is WordPress Better Than Blogger?

Jason — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 13:02:06 +0000

Are you still building websites the old, hard way?

If you are, then stop. Most experts agree that the best way to build content websites (especially if you’re into Google Adsense) is by using WordPress. Not surprisingly, this blog is proudly powered by WordPress.

I’ve included an excellent article by Gobala Krishnan on WordPress vs Blogger right below. Read on…

Blogging Wars – WordPress Vs Blogger

There’s a war going on in the blogosphere, and it has nothing to do with bloggers dissing each other on their respective websites. The war is about control of the blogosphere by several great, many good, and tons of terrible blogging platforms. The average newbie now has “too many” options to choose from, and the battle for blogging supremacy is hotter than ever.

At my website and blogs, I’m always asked the question “Is WordPress better than Blogger?”. The answer, of course, is “Yes”. But to really understand why, it’s important to look at both blogging platforms side-by-side and see which one you really need. Here’s the comparison scale:

1) Ease of Set-up And Use

Yes, it’s much easier to set-up a blog with Blogspot.com and get your own Blogger account. You can be done in 10 minutes flat. Once you’re set-up you can start posting immediately. If you want to add a designer’s touch to your blog, there are also tons of blogger templates available for free.
Installing WordPress however can be a major headache if you don’t know what you’re doing. Since you’re going to host it on your own account, you’ll need to download the installation files, upload them to your server, set-up a database, and run the configuration script.

However, if you know which hosting account to get, you can choose one with Cpanel included. With Cpanel, you can do a one-click installation, upgrade and removal of your WordPress platform.

2) Customization & Advanced Use

Blogger doesn’t allow categories. You can’t sort your articles into different focuses, unless you know how to hack the platform. With WordPress, not only can you add categories, you can also display each category differently on your main page. In fact with the correct plugins you can even turn your WordPress into a magazine-like portal.

Publishing with Blogger can be a pain in the ass. It can take forever to post articles, especially if you’re making changes to the entire website. With WordPress, publishing is much faster, although if you load your system with all kinds of bells and whistles it can be just as frustrating. With a Blogger account, you can get additional features like “Shout Boxes” that improve interaction on your site. You can also get pretty themes and nifty little tools that you can add to the core template files. However, that’s as far as you can go with Blogger.

With WordPress however, the sky is the limit. As cliche as that may sound, not only can you get themes, additional “plugins” and advanced tools, you can also extend WordPress to far beyond just a blogging platform. The talk today is about using WordPress as a complete, user-friendly Content Management System or CMS.

3) Copyrights and Ownership of Content

I started with Blogger and I won’t say that it’s bad. But after a while I started to get frustrated with Blogger, and here’s why: Google Owns Your Content Google has the authority to shut down your account without warning if they don’t like what you’re blogging about. You don’t have absolute control over your own blog. With WordPress, you own the domain name and the blog is hosted on your own account. You have full control over your content.

With the self-hosted version of WordPress (not WordPress.com), you’re free to write about anything you want, and use the software in any way you want. Yes, Blogger allows you to publish to your own domain, but they still own the database that holds your content! Don’t forget that!

4) Search Engine Optimization and Traffic

There’s this propaganda that since Google owns Blogger, they tend to favor Blogger accounts. I won’t say that this is illogical, but from my experience, there’s no such favoritism.

I’ve heard as many stories of getting indexed fast and ranking high in search engines from both WordPress and Blogger users. As long as the content is good, the spiders will come.

When you post in Blogger, you can only ping a limited amount of sites, whereas with WordPress on your own domain you can ping as many blog directories as you want, and start getting more traffic.

As a conclusion, I would say that WordPress is only slightly ahead in terms of optimization for search engines, and building large amounts of traffic.

5) Money-Making Potential

There’s no doubt that it’s easier to get started with Google Adsense if you have a Blogger account. In fact you can now apply for Adsense from within a Blogger account. Not entirely surprising considering the fact that both are owned by the same company.

With WordPress, it can get tricky. The default installation is not enough. You’ll need a couple of plugins and even a better theme to really maximize the Adsense potential. However, this seems to be getting easier and there’s even “Adsense revenue sharing” plugins around that allow you to share ad revenue with other contributors and writers for your blog.

When you start using WordPress to build your Adsense websites, you’ll soon discover what I mean. It’s something you need to experience for yourself. I can tell you one thing though: when you go WordPress, you don’t go back.

About the Author
Gobala Krishnan is the author of WordPress Adsense System, the unique beginner’s guide to building content-rich Adsense websites with WordPress. You can download two free chapters of his book at

http://www.internetmarketingnotes.com/go/easywordpress