World of Blog, and how to join in

Once you decide what subject you're going to blog about, get together a list of possible topics that you can use as the basis for a post on that subject.

Writing down a list will help you make up your mind what topic or niche you will take on and help you find out if you can sustain writing on that topic. (If you can't think of 20-30 post titles/topics pretty easily before starting a blog it could be a signal that you've chosen the wrong subject).

Business blogs are sweeping the business community. Blogs are an excellent method to share a company's expertise, build additional web traffic, and connect with potential customers.

Blogging is a low-cost alternative to having a web presence. For small business owners without the time to learn web html or the money to hire a designer/developer, blogging offers an inexpensive method to get your company's name out on the Internet.

Updating the blog is a much quicker process than contacting a web designer with changes, or doing the coding and uploading yourself.

Fantastico is for use with cPanel only.

It's simple to use, just a few clicks to install a blog platform. So no work, no knowledge on your part, and no ftp programme is needed. However don't suddenly rush out and get yourself a host who offers fantastico with a hosting plan. Investigate the host first.

Warning
The installation scripts, although easy to use, are frequently not maintained by the ISP or webhost, and older releases of products with known security problems are in current use.

The default configuration for many applications may not be secure

Although Fantastico includes its own installers, since open source projects do not all have the financial and legal resources to prevent third parties from creating alternate installers, there may be many versions of fantastico in circulation.

If you wish to use fantastico, please check a host to see if the fantastico version is up to date and if the installation scripts are up to date.

If you host your own blog there are several advantages especially if you plan on blogging for your business. On a self hosted blog you're in complete control. Hosting your own means you will be responsible for installing the software, installing a database of some sort keeping everything up to date and patched with current versions. If that sounds like hard work - it's work, but not too much, not too often and not hard at all. It's a remarkably self-satisfying feeling when you are in control of your own blog.

I went from understanding absolutely nothing about the web to tinkering with code, tweaking templates and adding plugins in my sleep in 4 weeks.

If you're using your blog as your business or part of your business, it's not a great idea to be promoting someone else's domain like yourname.blogspot.com - which is essentially what you're doing if you are using a hosted version from blogger, or some other provider.

If you self host you will have your own domain name. Which means that you are developing your own brand. A huge plus in terms of SEO and marketing.

if you want to use your blog for professional blogging, I recommend self hosted wordpress.

I've seen a number of places which explain how to upgrade your existing version to 2.7. The advice I've seen differs depending on who is giving it and to tell you the truth, I just do it my own way. I'm certainly no rocket scientist my knowledge is purely basic, but this one works for me.

What I do is..

1. Download a copy of my database... just in case
2. Download my index php .. also just in case
3. Deactivate my plugins .. again just in case

4. Upload the 2.7 wp-admin to write over the existing wp-admin
5. Upload the 2.7 wp-includes to write over the existing wp-includes
6. Upload the singles files (some will write over and some are new)

When I log back in to my blog I'm asked to upgrade my database with a click, I do so and then activate my plugins. You may find you're in the default theme, just click back to your usual theme.

If you're upgrading from an older version of WordPress, I recommend a step-by-step process. Last week I upgraded a 2.3 to 2.7 like this.

I went through each of the transitions from 2.3 to 2.5, 2.5 to 2.6, and 2.6 to 2.7 to be sure that I had made all the changes necessary. Yes, I may be crazy but I put aside a couple of hours to do it. It wasn't my site and I was wary of leaving out some vital cog from the gears or whatever the terminology is.

Plugins (also called Add-ons, Components or Modules) are files you usually download separately from the WordPress basic installation. They provide additional functionality to your script that is not included in the standard installation.

To install a plugin you generally just need to put the plugin file into your 'wp-content/plugins' directory. Once a plugin is installed, you may activate it or deactivate it from the Plugins menu in your WP administration.

The removal is also straight forward in most cases. Simply remove the directory for the plugin you would like to uninstall and it will be automatically deactivated.

Still always bear in mind that not all Plugins are easy to install so always refer to their documentation and installation instructions first.

Dragon Design Site Map

What a joy this little site map generator is to be sure! It's small, and so quick to download, uploads in less than a minute, and activates with a click. You can customise it to suit yourself.

(Here's one in action at Cafe Porridge)

Programmer Lester Chan provides a whole heap of plugins.

I use his WP Polls which is extremely customisable and supports a multiple selection of answers. Easy to install, customise and use. (People like polls).

I also use his post ratings plugin, his stats plugin and his 'sticky post' plugin.

There are more plugins on Lester's site but I haven't used all of them.