The Spinning Donut

WordPress keeps evolving and getting better and better.  The current production version is 2.5.1 and 2.6 beta 1 has been hot off the presses for a few days now, and I thought I’d take the time to remind folks how to run it locally so you can play.

I currently use XAMPP Lite 1.6.6a for running WordPress locally.  For those wondering, locally means on your C: drive under Windows XP and Windows Vista for me. Read about it and how to install it at Running and Reviewing WordPress 2.5-beta1.

If you already have XAMPP Lite all you have to do is:

1. Unzip WordPress 2.6 beta 1 under the folder C:\xampplite\htdocs\wordpress26
2. Run XAMPP Control Panel Application and start the Apache Admin.



3. Create a database called wordpress26
4. Copy C:\xampplite\htdocs\wodpress26\wp-config-sample.php to wp-config.php
5. Edit wp-config.php and change the database name to wordpress26 and the login to root with no password unless you configured things differently on your machine.
6. That’s it!!
7. Browse to http://localhost/wordpress26 and follow the prompts as usual.  Let me know if you need help in the comments.

Don’t forget to visit WordPress lead developer’s blog article WordPress 2.6 Beta 1 to read about all the coolness.

In the meantime, here’s 14 Reasons why you’d want to run WordPress locally:

1. You want to check out the new features and get ready to use them in the most productive way on your self-hosted WordPress blog.
2. You want to stay up all night trying different WordPress themes out.
3. You’re developing your own WordPress theme and you need a test environment.
4. You want to dig deep into the guts of WordPress and find out what makes it tick.
5. You’re developing the next most-downloaded plug-in for WordPress 2.6 and you need a test environment to do so.
6. You don’t want to run beta software for your production WordPress environment.
7. To see what Post Revisioning is all about. Look for it under the Advanced Options section while you’re editing a blog post.  It’s keeps an audit trail of sorts on your blog post editing sessions. Pretty darn cool.
8. A new and improved image editing dialog that offers lots of control over the images in your posts.  Look for it by hovering your mouse over an inserted image.



9. Theme previewing as seen on WordPress.com
10. Built-in word counting in the post editor. Now you don’t have to copy your blog post into Word and use the word counter to see how many words you’ve written/wrote. Of course, if you do that kind of thing. Or if you didn’t know you could do that kind of thing.
11. Drag-and-drop sortable galleries.
12. Header image and color editor next to the Theme Editor.  Pretty cool.
13. Lots of bug fixes and performance enhancements for WordPress itself, TinyMCE, jQuery and the jQuery UI 1.5.
14. Because you’re just dang cool and on the cutting edge.   :)   Remember, it’s always better to be cool than functional.   :)   Just kidding of course.

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Here’s another 140-character social media site to hang out at called Plurk. Plurk is like Twitter in that you have 140-characters to write a message.

With Plurk however, you have a timeline that scrolls from left to right, most recent Plurks on the left and historical plurks on the right. So when you hold your mouse down on the timeline, you can scroll to the right through historical Plurks.

Hover your mouse over the timeline at either end and you’ll be able to page through time as well as get back to the start of the timeline quickly.

Click image for larger view (800 x 600)

In their own words:

What is Plurk?

A really snazzy site that allows you to showcase the events that make up your life, and follow the events of the people that matter to you, in deliciously digestible short messages called plurks.

Below are some of the features of Plurk.

Qualifiers

Plurk has qualifiers that you can select from before you write. When you write a message your plurk says something like this, BillS2000 says Plurk rocks!! Says, being the qualifier. Here are the other qualifiers you can use with a message:

Plurk Page

There’s a plurk page. Click on a plurk and you’ll see a little link called plurk page. This takes you to a page with all the responses listed below a plurk.  Kind of a Twitter resemblence.

Click image for larger view (800 x 600)

Response Counter

The responses to a plurk are contained in a drop-down box with a scrolling list. There’s also a counter that displays to the right of a plurk that indicates how many responses a plurk has.

Mute a Plurk

In the drop-down window of a plurk there is a mute button. When you mute a plurk, you won’t be notified of anymore responses from that plurk.

Media in a Plurk

You can embed a photo in a plurk, say from flickr or a video from YouTube in a plurk. When a photo or video link is in a plurk you’ll see a thumbnail of the image.

Privacy
The Plurk privacy and options allows you to disable comments to a plurk, place a private plurk to a select group of folks or even to just yourself.

Click image for larger view (800x 600)

Other Features

Go back in time as well as filters.  There’s a little calendar that helps you skip back and forward to specific dates of plurks as well as your drop-down filter list to just view certain plurks by filter.

I like the drop-down arrow next to a persons name that shows a quick view of their profile and a few actions that can be performed.

Want to put a Plurk widget on your blog?  Edit your profile and look under the Widget tab.

Cliques

Click on the Invite button that appears on your Plurk dashboard and you’ll have the ability to create a clique and add folks to that clique.  Kind of a private area(s) that you can use to make everyone feel excluded.  Just kidding.  This is a way to group people together.

and you’ll get to the Clique screen:

Karma and Emoticons

Karma is a good thing on Plurk. The more karma you get, the more stuff Plurk gives you including more emoticons. If you put your mouse over your Karma you’ll get tips on how to raise your Karma. Here is the list:

• Responses from other plurkers will gain you karma (forced conversation, which can be good)
• Karma will be lowered if you request friendship and get rejected
• Losing followers will lower your karma
• Plurking interesting stuff and getting followers will increase your karma
• Having karma over 10 will enable you to title your timeline
• Getting more karma will enable you to use exclusive emoticons and other features
• Uploading a profile picture will gain you more karma
• Updating your profile (location, birthday, etc.) will gain you more karma
• Having karma over 40 will enable you to change your display name
• Try to plurk regularly (each day) but don’t plurk too much (over 30 times per day)
• Having fun on plurk will increase your karma (hint: use dancing bananas, and who doesn’t like dancing bananas)

That’s about it for this blog post on Plurk.  There’s plenty to check out and I’ve just presented a few features.  So if you need another social media site in your life, check out Plurk.

Some Plurk Links

Plurk: Unique or Just Another Twitter Clone? by ReadWriteWeb

Plurk Karma Secrets Unraveled

Five Reasons Plurk Is Better Than Twitter And Vice-Versa by Jason Falls

Want to find out whether your Twitter friends are already using plurk?

FeedTwitter - is a little service that allows you to link Twitter and Plurk to your other activities.

5 reasons why you should be using Plurk - by Samir Balwani

A Few Things That Irk Me About Plurk by ciaran

Plurk Firefox Sidebar by Blog on a Stick (cool trick)

Plurk v Twitter: A First Look by Caroline Middlebrook

Need some friends on Plurk?  Look at the Interesting Plurkers link at the top-right of Plurk.  Also, Maki (Dosh Dosh) started a list the other day that was over 100 and today is well over 500.  WOW!!  Grab a friend or two.  That list begs me or someone to write code that will loop through the list and add people slowing as friends.  You have to watch out though because Plurk only wants you to add around 30 a day plus it affects your Karma.  If you have unaccepted friend requests, it’s bad for your Plurk Karma.  

My two cents: I think the intrigue with karma will die, so the kind folks at Plurk should drop it now.  Also, I don’t think people will distinguish between friends and fans.  I say drop it now.  Well, we’ll see, maybe I’m missing something magical about those two features of Plurk.

If you want, Add me as a friend and I’ll add you as well.

Filed Under Social Media | 6 Comments »

It’s been dubbed Download Day 2008 and that magical day is Tuesday, June 17, 2008, where Firefox creators want to set a Guinness World Record for most downloads in a 24-hour period.

The current count of folks who have pledged to download Firefox 3 stands at 1,425,827 as I write this.  The site they have set up to track how many people Pledge to download Firefox 3 during Tuesday, June 17, 2008.

The site also has a map that updates dynamically displaying how many folks have pledged to download around the world.  Kind of fun.

In their words:

With more than 15,000 improvements, Firefox 3 is faster, safer and smarter than before.

If you’ve been using Firefox 3 Release Candidates, you pretty much know what’s coming.  Read about the details here.

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Here’s an excellent video on Web Application Usability presented by 37Signals Ryan Singer.  Below the video are some points from the presentation.

Anyone who is involved with how software works should keep this close at hand. It’s an excellent presentation on keeping it simple when designing software and concrete examples of what keeping it simple means.

Three points from the presentation:

1. Screens
2. Flow
3. Language

Screens

• Need to flow from screen to screen
• What is the screen for?  Be very specific
• Make a screen’s purpose clear
• Clarity on the screen - You can see right away where to go on a screen to get something done and how things relate instantly.  You’re not hunting and pecking and trying to figure out what’s what.
• Edward Tufte - Great Inspiration - Book: The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, 2nd edition
• What we want is Strong, Normal, Weak elements of a page.
• Pay attention to contrast - It will determine what grabs your readers
• BuzzFeed - Great site that demonstrates easy scanning of their page
• Any time things are the same weight on a page, you haven’t decided what’s important
• What’s the most important element(s) on the screen?

The screen process to keep in mind is:

1. What is important?
2. Make that pop out
3. Make everything else fade back

Flow

• Reduce clicks to complete actions on a page
• Move from field to field without pausing
• Don’t jump back and forth while entering data

Language

• Interface design is copy writing
• Does it make sense to the user
• Example: Why tell users to Export to CSV; Use Export to Excel which reads CSV.  Most people know what Excel is, not CSV.
• Present choices to your users as if you’re having a conversation with a human and not a machine.
• You’re not submitting stuff when you provide submit buttons, your doing something like “Add a Person”, etc.
• Clarify the language
• Don’t make it a “techy” process by using “techy” terms.

Review

1. Prioritize what’s important
2. Emphasize and de-emphasize
3. Smoth out the flow
4. Clarify your language

Filed Under Web Design | Be The First To Comment »

Just like displaying your Feedburner subscribers on your blog, here’s a great way to show your twitter and Plurk followers as well.

For Twitter:

1. Browse to www.twittercounter.com.
2. Plug in your twitter username and click Show stats.
3. Copy and paste the generated code into your website or blog.

That’s it.  Don’t forget to check out the other buttons available.

Now you can show even more social proof on your blog with all your twitter followers.  

Source: via Digital Inspiration via Steve

Now all we need is an API for Plurk and we can add a PlurkCounter to our blogs.  

Update:  Here it is - PlurkCounter.  Have fun!!

Filed Under Social Media | Be The First To Comment »

Click image to purchase at Amazon.com

Chapter 5 - Blog Income and Earning Strategies

Chapter 5 is all about making money with your blog.

“There is no single right way or wrong way to earn money from blogging.”

“Cast your net wider,and you will be hard-pressed to fine two bloggers who make money identically.”

The assumption here is that you want to make money with your blog and Chapter 5 starts out with two questions and discussion on those questions.  Do you start off with ads on your blog from day one or do you build an audience and then advertise?

Six types of advertising in general are outlined and discussed followed by ad payment type which include CPC - cost per click, CPM - cost per thousand, and CPA - cost per acquisition.

1. Banner advertising
2. Textual advertising
3. Product -based advertising
4. Text-link ads
5. RSS ads
6. Sonpsorships

Finding Advertisers

Chapter 5 continues with how to prepare your blog for finding advertisers who might want to advertise directly on your blog.  A lengthy discussion explains not only how to find advertisers but also how to approach them, taking payments, how much to charge, ad formats, how many ads to display and optimizing your advertising.

Affiliate Programs

Affiliate programs are another way to make money with your blog.  You take a commission for selling or referring other products provided by others on your blog.  Amazon Associates is probably one of the most familiar programs.

Chapter 5 continues with 5 tips for using affiliates on your blog, 4 other ways to make money on your blog and 8 indirect ways to make money with your blog.

So you can see by “casting your net wide”, there are many way to make money on your blog and with your blog.  Chapter 5 does a thorough job of these topics by providing you with a feel for what monetizing methods you might want to take or consider.

Purchase at Amazon.com:

ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income

Make sure you subscribe by RSS reader or by email to receive chapter by chapter reviews of this book.

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