I just signed up with Contextual Partnership, a site which offers a WordPress plugin to link your blog to thousands of others, automatically. You set up keyword phrases and landing pages, and the plugin does the rest. I’m currently waiting for the account to be approved. I’ll post again about it when I have some results to report. Should be interesting!
Here’s a really neat tool which will tell you all of the colors in a picture you upload, plus it will give suggestions on complimentary color palettes. It comes in handy when building a web site around a logo or picture.
You can email yourself (or your webmaster) the results, too!
Sometimes when you’re on the phone with support, they want to know things about your computer, like what operating system you’re using, or what browser. Here’s a site which can help you answer those questions with ease!
Simply visit the site and the answers will be revealed. It even has a nice feature to email the details!
If you use Windows, you need to make sure your computer has the latest updates. There’s a flaw which could be exploited without you doing anything. The worm can “call” your computer and do its mischief. It’s a critical flaw and should be patched immediately.
You should be able to find Windows Update in your Start menu. As always, we’re here to answer any questions and help any way we can. Just contact us.
Consumer Reports has a long history of providing quality information to help consumers make informed decisions about spending their hard-earned bucks. Now they’ve come out with a guide to help you stay safe as you navigate the internet. Visit the site for some great advice on protecting your computer and the information on it:
Consumer Reports Guide to Online Security
I especially liked the article titled “19 tips to stay safe online”. And as always, if you need any help implementing the ideas, or if you have any questions, you can contact us. We’re happy to assist!
Here’s a very interesting application of Google docs – you can create a form for your web page, and the results will go into your Google spreadsheet. Sweet!!
http://websitecleanup.com/go/ffabfb
One of the great improvements in the new version of WordPress is the handling of pictures and other files… it’s pretty easy to insert a picture or link to a document into a post or page. One feature that’s lacking (for now) is the ability to overwrite an existing file with a new version, like if you want to replace a picture. And of course, ta daaaa! A plugin to the rescue.
WordPress Attachment Extender Plugin from Benjamin Sterling
The plugin adds a file upload field to the media editing page. I wonder if they’ll integrate it into the next version of WordPress?
There’s a new version of WordPress out – 2.5.1 – and it is sweet. The biggest change is in the admin interface… it’s been redesigned to be more user-friendly and visually appealing. It’s been rearranged, but it’s easy to get used to the new layout. My other favorite new feature is one-click plugin upgrades, which means when a new version of one of your plugins comes out, you just click the upgrade link and away you go. No muss, no fuss downloading, unzipping and uploading. Just one click!! And of course, with this type of thing you always want to be sure you have a good backup before you start upgrading either WordPress or your plugins.
The tagging feature in WordPress is really nice, too. It allows you to be more precisely classify your posts, kind of like subcategories or keywords. Once you get some tags going, you can put a “tag cloud” in your sidebar and people can browse your blog entries by clicking on the tags.
One problem I had after upgrading was uploading images, and I found out it’s a problem with Flash (since I’m running Linux, I may not have the latest and greatest). So, as usual, a plugin saved the day. I found a forum thread about the problem and the solution was down at the bottom: a plugin to disable the Flash uploader. After installing the plugin, I’m able to upload and manage files just fine.
This upgrade is definitely recommended. Your need at least PHP version 4.3 and MySQL version 4.0… any modern web host should meet or exceed those requirements. If your host doesn’t have these things, you need to think about changing web hosting. Here’s a host we like. If you need any help getting upgraded, please let us know – we’re happy to assist!
Recently I’ve worked on a site that is fairly new and not really ranking well in the search engines yet. There are several reasons for this (including lack of text on the home page), so I referred our client to the following article from The Site Wizard:
Why is My Site Not Ranking in the Search Engines?
The site in question violates several of the “rules” for getting good rankings, and I hope they’ll take my advice for improving the site.
Here’s a great site which allows you to open PDF files, add stuff, and save them with your additions.
The ability to save and email your documents requires a free account.
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