Monday, July 19th, 2010

Maintaining an Efficient WordPress Website

Setting up and operating a WordPress website is so simple, it may seem as though maintenance is unnecessary. That might be true if you want nothing more than a way to keep a personal journal online. However, if you are holding a conversation with the world, there are things that need to be done to keep it flowing smoothly.

1. Update the Software

The developers at WordPress are working constantly to improve the platform and make it more secure. You won’t find updates needing to be done very often, but they should be attended to promptly.

Although you may be happy with the version you are using, you don’t want to miss out on any cool new features and failing to update the software could cause glitches and leave your site vulnerable at inconvenient times. Every time you log onto the Admin panel, check to see if there is an update.

Like all other features in WordPress, updating is very user friendly—usually it’s literally just one click away. The same location handles updates for WordPress itself and any installed plugins, themes or widgets. If you have updates that need doing, they will be listed on the Navigation Menu under Updates. Just click the link to go to the updates page. If there is more than one update waiting, only click one at a time and wait for it to finish before going on.

2. Fix Broken Links

Broken links are a sure sign of a poorly maintained website (and, in severe cases, an inept website owner). If the link doesn’t function, it may be because of updates made to the original site. [Ed. Note: Here at Berries and Cream Blog Design, we use the Broken Link Checker plug-in, which can be installed from your WordPress admin area.]

Fixing this from the links page is easy once you have got the new URL. First, check for broken links using a broken link checker. Then, once you have found the broken links, login to your WordPress control panel and go to the Links menu. Click Edit on the offensive links, then replace the old address and with the new one. Repeat for each link. Run a broken link check once more to see if you missed anything. Clean up any links that you have no plans to restore.

3. Monitor Comments

Most people have some kind of moderation feature set for comments on their blog posts. Allowing comment access without controls is a dangerous practice.

Spam filters are not perfect. Email filters sometimes catch personal emails by accident and comment filters can do the same. Checking regularly will make it easier to find any real comments and approve them. Once you are sure the folder only contains junk, empty it. Your hosting company will only allow you so much storage space and you don’t want it to fill up with trash.

4. Control the Media Library

How often to clean out old photos or other media files will vary widely from blog to blog. If you have a lot of photos or videos, they can fill your storage quickly. Deleting old ones can make your blog load faster, but you don’t want to remove them while people are still actively commenting on the post to which they are attached. Making the decision to delete can be difficult, but it is good practice to audit the Media Library every three to six months.

5. Database Maintenance

The average blog user does not need to log into the MySQL cPanel after setting up their WordPress site. While WordPress needs the MySQL database to function properly, it handles most of the updating itself. Your hosting company should supply support if there is a database error. However, those who are database-trained and are on cPanel hosting can update and maintain the database entries themselves.

Some companies provide regular database backup services. If not, and you don’t feel too comfortable about maintaining the database yourself, you should install a backup plug-in or consider hosting companies that offer daily backups.

The busy life of the average person can make it a challenge just to update blog content regularly. It is becoming more common to hire someone else to perform maintenance tasks. There are many companies operating WordPress maintenance services for a fee. They will do your backups and upgrades on a regular basis, leaving you only needing to worry about writing your posts.

This article was written by Christopher Shepard, an online entrepreneur, WordPress developer, and senior writer for Web Host Gear.

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Category: Tips and Tricks

Tuesday, July 6th, 2010

Blogging Basics: Choosing a Blogging Platform

Welcome back to our ongoing series, Blogging Basics, where we give you blogging tips to create a successful blog. Click the link to view all of the posts that have been published in this series to date.

If you’ve been following this series from the beginning, you’ve learned what a blog is, become familiar with basic blogging terminology, and learned blogging etiquette do’s and don’ts. Now it’s time to actually start your blog.

The first step to starting a blog is to choose a blogging platform.

By blogging platform, I mean the program that provides the foundation for your blog.

Blogger Logo WordPress logo

Three of the most popular blogging platforms are BloggerWordPress.com, and self-hosted WordPress. I’ll be providing a features comparison in a few minutes. Before I do that, however, I want to help you figure out what you need in a blogging platform.

Answer the following questions:

  1. Why am I blogging?
    • to create a personal space where I can write what I want
    • to create a community
    • to make a little money on the side
    • to be my primary source of income
  2. Is this just a blog, or do I want information pages, too – like About, Contact, etc.
  3. What is my budget for starting this blog?
  4. Will I want to add features (like pages, contact forms, and more) in the future?

NOTE: If you are blogging for any reason other than to create a personal journal, I highly recommend that you purchase a domain name (like berriesandcreamblogdesign.com) as this will give your blog more credibility with your readers.

Once you’ve answered those questions, you’ll be able to make an informed decision regarding which blogging platform to choose.

Compare the Platforms

Here’s a comparison of key features of Blogger, WordPress.com, and self-hosted WordPress.

Features

Blogger

WordPress.com

WordPress

(self-hosted)

who has control and ownership of your blog’s contentBlogger – they can delete blogs without warningWordPress.com – they can delete blogs without warningyou
ability to use a purchased custom domain name for your blog’s URLyesyes – if you pay for the Domain Mapping upgrade as well as for the domain nameyes
ability to freely change the layout (number of columns, sectioned footer, etc.) of your blog’s theme or template.yesyes
ability to freely change the design (colors, images, etc.) of your theme or template.yesyes – if you purchase the CSS upgrade for $15 per yearyes
allowed to place ads on your blog.yesyes
ability to create static pages, Like About Me, Contact, etc.up to 10unlimitedunlimited
ability to add on additional functions, like stat counter, contact form, FB Like button, etc., using plug-ins or scriptslimitednoyes
what the blog will cost youfreefreefree, but you have to pay for a domain name and hosting each year

Choose Your Platform

Based on the above chart, here are my recommendations:

  1. If your blog is going to be strictly personal space, I’d recommend using Blogger. It’s free, you can change the design and layout as much as you want, and you probably won’t need more than 10 pages.
  2. If your blog’s purpose is anything other than personal, I’d recommend choosing the self-hosted option. You will have complete control over your entire blog and will never have to worry about limitations placed by Blogger or WordPress.com.

You may wonder why I don’t recommend WordPress.com for any purpose if it’s so popular. I simply don’t think it’s as good a choice as the other two platforms. I don’t like that you have to pay to change the design of your theme, and I don’t like that you can’t change the layout of your theme – ever. If you want a different layout, you have to choose a different theme.

Your blog will have a hard time standing out from the crowd if you are limited to using the exact same designs as everyone else.

If you want to use a custom domain name for your blog (highly recommended), you not only have to buy the domain name, but you must also pay WordPress.com for an upgrade to be able to use the domain name with your blog.

In addition to the design and domain name limitations, WordPress.com’s Terms of Service prohibit you from having ads on your blog, meaning your blog can never legally be anything more than a personal blog.

Blogger allows you much more control over your blog than does WordPress.com, and the price is the same: free. On top of that, you won’t have to pay anything to get features that WordPress.com only gives you if you pay to upgrade.

Create Your Blog

Now that you’ve decided on a platform, you are ready to start your blog.

Blogger: Go to http://blogger.com/start and sign up for your free blog.

WordPress.com: Go to http://wordpress.com/ and sign up for your free blog.

Self-hosted WordPress: There are several steps for this type of blog, but I promise it’s worth the effort.

  1. Decide on and purchase a domain name. A domain name is like your house address – it’s how people find you on the Internet.Based on my experience, I recommend NameCheap for domain name purchases. You may be able to find a discount code at RetailMeNot.
  2. Purchase hosting. Hosting is like your actual house. It’s the space for your belongings. In the case of a blog, it’s the space for your posts, pages, images, and other content.I personally use and highly recommend Hostgator. I have found their service to be outstanding, and their customer service reps have never been less than polite and extremely helpful.
  3. Install WordPress. Many hosts, including Hostgator, have a simple way to install WordPress. Log in to your control panel and look for Fantastico, Simple Scripts, or something similar.

If you need help getting started with your blog, we do offer WordPress installation services in addition to our design services.

What is your favorite blogging platform, and why?

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Category: Blogging