WordPress News For The Week Of June 6th 2008

*Plugin Deactivation* - John Lamansky has put together a list of steps that you should perform to alleviate this issue entitled, What To Do If Plugin Deactivation Breaks Your Blog. Typically, deleting the plugin file from your plugin directory usually solves most problems. However, John’s list of steps guides you through the process of determining which bits of code from the failed plugin are causing the errors and then removing those lines of code. - http://wordpress.jdwebdev.com/blog/plugin-deactivation-theme-errors/

*31 People To Follow On Twitter - *Twitter, the micro blogging service which allows you to submit messages that are 140 characters or less has become an excellent communications tool. A large number of people are using Twitter on a daily basis to keep up with the world as well as communicating with their friends and family members from almost any location. As luck would have it, a large number of WordPress faithful are also using Twitter. Each individual on this list is doing something significant within the WordPress community and some of them are core developers such as Matt Mullenweg. - http://weblogtoolscollection.com/archives/2008/06/04/30-people-to-follow-on-twitter/

*WordPress.com May Wrapup* – Matt has published the stats for WordPress.com for the month of May and as usual, the numbers are large. Check out these stats. (All of the stats have been rounded off to make things simpler)

*

221,000 blogs were created

*

245,000 new users

*

2.6 million file uploads

*

1,100 gigs of new files

*

417 terabytes of content transferred between datacenters

*

3.4 million posts and 1.1 million new pages.

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5.8 million new comments

*

4.9 million logins

*

694 million pageviews on WordPress.com and 441 million pageviews
on self-hosted blogs.

*

71 million pageviews in RSS feeds

*

965 thousand active blogs where active means they got a human visitor

*

157 million unique people visited WordPress.com hosted blogs.

*Plugin of the week* – WP Comment Remix - WP Comment Remix adds a plethora of new options and features to Wordpress. From Reply and Quote links for commenters, to a full upgrade to the edit comments pages in the admin panel. - http://pressography.com/plugins/wp-comment-remix/

If you would like to know more about what is going on within the world of WordPress, visit www.weblogtoolscollection.com or tune in to my weekly podcast called WordPress Weekly which comes on immediately following this talkcast

Popularity: 4% [?]

WordPress News For The Week Of May 30th 2008

*Lester Chan’s Wave 2* – Lester Gamerz Chans has announced the second wave of updates for his plugins. These updates are for WP-DownloadManager, WP-Ban. WP-DBManager and WP-PostViews. This second round of updat4es means all of Lesters plugins now work with WordPress 2.5 and above. - http://lesterchan.net/wordpress/2008/05/30/lester-chans-wordpress-plugins-june-2008-update-wave-2/

*WordPress 2.6* – Here is a highlight of some of the developments that have taken place with WordPress 2.6, support for Google Gears, a new style loader to complement the new script loader, drag and drop sortable gallery collections for the new Media Library, and adoption of the WordPress.com WordPress Theme preview ability which allows “lightbox” previews of Themes before you make your final selection. - http://wpdevel.wordpress.com/

WordPress Post Revisions – For those running multi author blogs, you’ll love this new feature coming down the pike in 2.6. WordPress post revisions will work with the autosave feature to store a history timeline of your blog posts so you can get protection from accidental changes, as can happen with multiple blogger blogs, and if something goes bork in the blog while posting. - http://mdawaffe.wordpress.com/2008/05/22/post-revisions-in-wordpress-26/

*Plugin of the week* – Plugins List WordPress Plugin - This is a simple Wordpress plug-in aimed at giving credit where credit is due. This plug-in lists all the plugins you are using. The plugin inserts a simple html list into any post/page via a piece of shortcode.

If you would like to know more about what is going on within the world of WordPress, visit www.weblogtoolscollection.com <http://www.jeffro2pt0.com/> or tune in to my weekly podcast called WordPress Weekly which comes on immediately following this talkcast.

Popularity: 16% [?]

Next on Wetpaint Nation

On the next segment (Wetpaint Nation) on Podcaster Training, I will talk about some of the following:

• Wiki of the Week
• Widget Pic & Trick of the Week (NEW!)
• Any Wetpaint News

Reminder: The Budde Podcasting Center is in the process of being built out - But, We are in v3 and you can use what we have! See….

Popularity: 29% [?]

Wordpress Weekly News Segment 05/23/2008

**WordPress News For The Week Of May 23rd 2008**

*24 Ways to contribute to WordPress* – I wrote a piece on WeblogToolsCollection which covered 24 different ways to contribute to the WordPress project. Some of those ways include, Participating in the WordPress forum, Create and share a WordPress Plugin, Share and Create a WordPress Theme, and Contribute to the WP Codex. Visit http://weblogtoolscollection.com/archives/2008/05/19/24-ways-to-contribute-to-wordpress/ to get the full list.

*Scrapur.com offers steps to perform before changing permalinks* – The folks over at Scrapur.com has put together a list of steps along with a list of plugins to use before you change your permalink structure within WordPress. If you don’t take the proper precautions before changing your permalinks, you could end up with a ton of broken links. Check out the article here http://scrapur.com/index/wordpress/steps-before-changing-permalink-in-wordpress/

*Lester Chan’s Gamerz Plugin Updates* – Lester Chan, the creator of some of the most popular plugins used with WordPress announced that he has released his first wave of updates for his plugins. Lester also announced that all of the plugins within this list will be compatible for WordPress 2.5 and above. Lester’s plugins are awesome and I highly recommend them to anyone who is looking for plugins that solve the problems that lester’s does. Check out the list of plugins that were updated here http://weblogtoolscollection.com/archives/2008/05/15/gamerz-wordpress-plugins-update/

*Plugin of the week* – This weeks featured plugin is called BT Active Discussions http://www.blogthority.com/bt-active-discussions/ This is a recent comments plugin that displays customizable number of blog posts with recently updated comments. The output of the plugin looks very similar to phpBB’s View Active Topics and vBulletin’s Today’s Posts functions.

Popularity: 13% [?]

Wetpaint Nation Segment Notes 05/23/2008

Wetpaint Injected: Want a wiki on your site? Well with Wetpaint Injected you can! - With Wetpaint Injected, your visitors will be able to contribute an ongoing stream of search engine optimized new content to your site. This user-generated content will increase your search engine presence. [more...]

Twitter: Troy launched the twitter account http://www.twitter.com/Troy_Wetpaint he will post about recent Wetpaint News, Wetpaint Blog posts, plus more Wetpaint stuff…

Quick TalkShoe News: Release has been post-poned - The release information that I talked about last week will be in effect on Tuesday, May 27, 2008.

Wetpaint Nation: For more Wetpaint Tips, tricks, and Wetpaint News catch the latest episode of Wetpaint Nation on our Wiki, the blog or on our TalkShoe page.

Questions, Comments and Feedback welcomed - If you have any questions about Wetpaint, Wetpaint Nation or using the TalkShoe Service for Wetpaint Nation, Drop me a line at podcast@buddes.net and I will get back to you. I love seeing questions, comments and feedback, so let me know what you think.

Budde Podcasting Center: v2 of the Budde Podcasting Center at live.buddes.net has been release and was released yesterday. Check it out today.

Popularity: 14% [?]

Talkshoe News from Josh Budde 05/16/2008

Support Changes: New Call Center (724.935.8265) and Frequently Asked Questions, Plus more.. See http://www.talkshoe.com/support for more details.

Next Release: Participant Counts on the Homepage and Live Now pages, New Button and Alignment of Buttons on Web and Pro Clients, You’ll be able to mute and unmute guests in your show automatically when they join (Based on Mute Status in Settings and on Current Episode), This is for Callers and Chatters, New Blog Design at http://www.talkshoe.com/blog.

Josh will be hosting an episode of Wetpaint Nation next Friday at 7:00 PM Eastern Time and the segment for Wetpaint will follow shortly after the show. Interested in getting the latest in the Budde Podcasting World? Subscribe to the Budde Podcasting Newsletter.

Popularity: 9% [?]

Wetpaint Nation Segment Notes for 05/09/2008

Wetpaint Mother’s Day Card - Wetpaint has released a Mother’s day template where you can show your mother how much you love her. Sure, she may not be able to hang it on the fridge door, but she can email it out to her entire address book and say, “My baby did this just for me!” She’ll undoubtedly be the envy of all her friends. [ScreenShot of a Template that was Completed!]

Topic from Wetpaint Nation - Social Promotion, Why you should use Social Networks and Social Bookmarks, what it will do for you and how it can help you to get more Visitors, Participants and Collaboration. [Show notes from Wetpaint Nation, Episode 10]

Next on Wetpaint Nation - Next Episode is on Friday, May 23, 2008 and I will be talking about Wiki of the Week, Tip of the Week, News and Much more.. Join us live on May 23rd. - Check out the Talking Wiki and TalkShoe Show Page.

Questions, Comments and Feedback welcomed - If you have any questions about Wetpaint, Wetpaint Nation or using the TalkShoe Service for Wetpaint Nation, Drop me a line at podcast@buddes.net and I will get back to you. I love seeing questions, comments and feedback, so let me know what you think.

Popularity: 5% [?]

Wordpress Weekly Segment Notes for 05/09/2008

**WordPress News For The Week Of May 9th 2008**

*Automattic Turns 21 –* Automattic, the company behind Wordpress.com has hired it’s 21^st employee. He goes by the name of Warwick Poole and has been hired on to keep the barriers to publishing low by scaling the infrastructure which runs wordpress.org, wordpress.com akismet and other automattic sponsored projects. - http://blog.linuxinternet.org/joining-automattic/

*Your Favorite BookMarklet?* - Matt Mullenweg laid the question out their to the community to receive their feedback on what publishing bookmarklet did they favor the most. Many people including myself vouched for the usefulness of the Tumblr bookmarklet. Some mentioned the WP Quickpost plugin but others were quick to point out that the quickpost plugin lacked features. It would appear as though there may be some development going on into a new bookmarklet, which disappeared with the release of WP 2.5

*Subscribe To Comments Now Unchecked By Default* – The popular subscribe to comments plugin which was developed by WordPress core developer Mark Jaquith now leaves the subscribe box unchecked by default. According to Mark, the previous method which was an opt out way of thinking was and has continued to be a shady practice and makes for a bad end user experience. Mark now leaves the choice of subscribing left to the reader by default. This sets a good trend that I and many others hope will continue. - http://markjaquith.wordpress.com/2008/04/24/why-subscribe-to-comments-doesnt-let-you-check-the-subscription-box-by-default/

*Plugin of the week* – The plugin for this week is called Article Templates. Article Templates enables template support for both posts and pages. If you find yourself routinely posting the same information in relatively the same layout, this plugin is perfect for you as you can manage as many templates for content as you can create. However, the plugin only supports the templating of content and not of categories, tags, and post titles associated with the post. Things I would love to see added to the plugin. - http://www.bin-co.com/tools/wordpress/plugins/article_templates/

If you would like to know more about what is going on within the world of WordPress, visit www.weblogtoolscollection.com <http://www.jeffro2pt0.com/> or tune in to my weekly podcast called WordPress Weekly which comes on immediately following this talkcast.

Popularity: 12% [?]

Wordpress Weekly News Segment Notes 05/02/2008

**WordPress News For The Week Of May 2*^*nd* * 2008**

*WLTC Plugin Competition* - WeblogToolsCollection.com has announced it’s WordPress plugin competition exclusively for WordPress version 2.5 and above. The content will begin on May 10^th and will end on the 10^th of july. There will be a first, second, third prize along with a consolation prize. The contest results should be displayed by the beginning of August. For contest rules, please visit the shownotes as they will contain a link to the contest. - http://weblogtoolscollection.com/archives/2008/04/30/announcing-wordpress-plugin-competition-25/

*Upcoming WordCamps* – The wordpress team has announced a series of WordCamp events that will be taking place around the world in the not to distant future.

*WordCamp San Francisco* will be August 16 at the Mission Bay Conference Center.

WordCamp Paris will be on May 3rd . Here’s their official site .

WordCamp Italy in Milan will be May 10th . (And I believe I’ll be there.)

WordCamp Birmingham UK will be July 19-20.

WordCamp Toronto will be October 4th .

With a number of people in the planning stages right now WordCamps in Australia , Philippines, Beijing, Utah, Hawaii, UK, NYC. There is also a central repository of WordCamp events which can be found at http://central.wordpress.org

*Where Is PodPress?* - A few days ago, the main website that hosted the PodPress project ended up turning into a Godaddy parked page. After inquiring about the PodPress project I discovered that the website encountered a domain registration snafu. While talking with Mightyseek, I learned that the new version of PodPress is almost ready for release. The next version of PodPress promises to be more customizable as in the way it looks on your blog. Mightyseek has also informed me that he plans on creating PodPress ports for Joomla and Drupal which should quickly follow the release.

*Plugin of the week* - WP-Crontrol WP-Crontrol is a tangle of black magic that allows a plugin developer or a user to schedule commands to be executed. WP-Crontrol is a plugin that lets a blog owner see through that magic and figure out what’s actually going on. In the shownotes will be a link to an article which instructs you on how you can use this plugin in conjunction with WP Database Backup to create scheduled backups.

If you would like to know more about what is going on within the world of WordPress, visit www.weblogtoolscollection.com or tune in to my weekly podcast called WordPress Weekly which comes on immediately following this talkcast.

Popularity: 4% [?]

How To Write An eBook

The hardest part of writing is the first sentence.
When you look at the whole project, it seems like an
impossible task. That’s why you have to break it down
into manageable tasks. Think of climbing a mountain.
You are standing at the foot of it and looking up at
its summit vanishing into the clouds. How can you
possibly scale such an immense and dangerous mountain?

There is only one way to climb a mountain ? step by
step.

Now think of writing your ebook in the same light. You
must create it step by step, and one day, you will
take that last step and find yourself standing on the
summit with your head in the clouds.

The first thing you have to do, as if you actually
were a mountain climber, is to get organized. Instead
of climbing gear, however, you must organize your
thoughts. There are some steps you should take before
you begin. Once you’ve gone through the following
list, you will be ready to actually begin writing your
ebook.

Beginning Steps to Writing an ebook

First, figure out your ebook’s working title. Jot down
a few different titles, and eventually, you’ll find
that one that will grow on you. Titles help you to
focus your writing on your topic; they guide you in
anticipating and answering your reader’s queries. Many
non-fiction books also have subtitles. Aim for clarity
in your titles, but cleverness always helps to sell
books ? as long as it’s not too cute. For example,
Remedies for Insomnia: twenty different ways to count
sheep. Or: Get off that couch: fifteen exercise plans
to whip you into shape.

Next, write out a thesis statement. Your thesis is a
sentence or two stating exactly what problem you are
addressing and how your book will solve that problem.
All chapters spring forth from your thesis statement.
Once you’ve got your thesis statement fine-tuned,
you’ve built your foundation. From that foundation,
your book will grow, chapter by chapter.

Your thesis will keep you focused while you write your
ebook. Remember: all chapters must support your thesis
statement. If they don’t, they don’t belong in your
book. For example, your thesis statement could read:
We’ve all experienced insomnia at times in our lives,
but there are twenty proven techniques and methods to
give you back a good night’s sleep.

Once you have your thesis, before you start to write,
make sure there is a good reason to write your book.
Ask yourself some questions:

* Does your book present useful information and is
that information currently relevant?

* Will you book positively affect the lives of your
readers?

* Is your book dynamic and will it keep the reader’s
attention?

* Does you book answer questions that are meaningful
and significant?

If you can answer yes to these questions, you can feel
confident about the potential of your ebook.

Another important step is to figure out who your
target audience is. It is this group of people you
will be writing to, and this group will dictate many
elements of your book, such as style, tone, diction,
and even length. Figure out the age range of your
readers, their general gender, what they are most
interested in, and even the socio-economic group they
primarily come from. Are they people who read fashion
magazines or book reviews? Do they write letters in
longhand or spend hours every day online. The more you
can pin down your target audience, the easier it will
be to write your book for them.

Next, make a list of the reasons you are writing your
ebook. Do you want to promote your business? Do you
want to bring quality traffic to your website? Do you
want to enhance your reputation?

Then write down your goals in terms of publishing. Do
you want to sell it as a product on your website, or
do you want to offer it as a free gift for filling out
a survey or for ordering a product? Do you want to use
the chapters to create an e-course, or use your ebook
to attract affiliates around the world? The more you
know upfront, the easier the actual writing will be.

Decide on the format of your chapters. In non-fiction,
keep the format from chapter to chapter fairly
consistent. Perhaps you plan to use an introduction to
your chapter topic, and then divide it into four
subhead topics. Or you may plan to divide it into five
parts, each one beginning with a relevant anecdote.

How to make your ebook “user friendly”

You must figure out how to keep your writing engaging.
Often anecdotes, testimonials, little stories, photos,
graphs, advice, and tips will keep the reader turning
the pages. Sidebars are useful for quick, accessible
information, and they break up the density of the
page.

Write with a casual, conversational tone rather than a
formal tone such as textbook diction. Reader’s respond
to the feeling that you are having a conversation with
them. Break up the length and structure of your
sentences so you don?t hypnotize your readers into
sleep. Sentences that are all the same length and
structure tend to be a good aid for insomnia!

Good writing takes practice. It takes lots and lots of
practice. Make a schedule to write at least a page a
day. Read books and magazines about the process of
writing, and jot down tips that jump out at you. The
art of writing is a lifetime process; the more you
write (and read), the better your writing will become.
The better your writing becomes, the bigger your sales
figures.

In an ebook that is read on the screen, be aware that
you must give your reader’s eye a break. You can do
this by utilizing white space. In art classes, white
space is usually referred to as “negative space.”
Reader’s eyes need to rest in the cool white oasises
you create on your page. If your page is too dense,
your reader will quit out of it as soon as their eyes
begin to tear.

Make use of lists, both bulleted and numbered. This
makes your information easy to absorb, and gives the
reader a mental break from dissecting your paragraphs
one after the other.

Finally, decide on an easy-to-read design. Find a font
that’s easy on the eyes, and stick to that font
family. Using dozens of fonts will only tire your
readers out before they’ve gotten past your
introduction. Use at least one and a half line
spacing, and text large enough to be read easily on
the screen, but small enough so that the whole page
can be seen on a computer screen. You will have to
experiment with this to find the right combination.

Of course, don’t forget to run a spell and grammar
check. You are judged by something as minor as correct
punctuation, so don?t mess up a great book by tossing
out semicolons randomly, or stringing sentences
together with commas. (By the way, that’s called a
“comma splice.”)

Last of all, create an index and a bibliography.
That’s it! You’ve written a book! Now all you have to
do is publish your ebook online, and wait for download
request from your website visitors.

Popularity: 10% [?]

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