BlogMunch

Texty.com - a new way to blog?

I test out texty.com to see if it offers any advantages to my current editor and Wordpress editor. Mike Elgan introduce it on his site with the post “Easy like blogging”

So far, I don’t see any advantages on using this service over any other blog platform. Maybe if you have a website, but did not install any blog software, maybe this will be useful to you. It is easy to edit static pages.

It uses javascript to publish your content, which will not be index by search engines.

It is now at beta ver .01, so the final product could be far away. Let’s hope the site doesn’t fold before it comes out of beta. Good luck!

The other website, also mentioned on the above post, WriteToMyBlog seems better. Might review it later.

[edit: Initially, I pasted the javascript on this post, but it is extremely ugly with the comment form tagged to the content. I decided to remove it.]

Weekend Wordpress template links

Some WordPress themes I found this week:

Wordpress Themes

• FTW WordPress theme : A 3 col theme with a good contrast of black and white. I like the bluish page menu.
• Blueberry for Sandbox : The sister theme to this redoable theme that I am using now. It is a skin for the Sandbox theme. Although not placed in the Sandbox Designs Competition, still a good dark 3-col theme.
• Cleaker 2.1 Wordpress Theme : I found this theme when I followed an incoming link back to its source (Novovo.net). A zenlike 3-col theme.
• ParmaRossa 1.0 Theme : I found this on Wordpresstemplates.name. But I always like to find the real creator of the theme so as to linkback as credit to the creator. In this case, the creator, Limitless doesn’t seem to have a site of his/her own.
• Best Three Column WordPress Themes And More : Some of the best 3-col theme are found on this list. Take your pick.
• Wordpress Theme Generator : To get a unique design for your blog while not getting your hands dirty with codes, you can use this theme generator. You can choose if you want a third column, or where you want your menu pages, etc. The themes generated are even widgets ready. So use your imagination and creativity, create something you can be proud of.

Technorati Tags: wordpress theme, 3-column

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Wordpress Plugin of the week - Redirection

After the migration of my blog, the permalink structure for WordPress is different from Blogger. This cause most of my previous posts to display 404 error messages. To remove it from Google index, you can use the Google Webmaster tool to remove them. The problem is, you can only remove only one at a time using URL removal request tool.

Redirection Plugin

That’s why I use a plugin called Redirection to redirect all 404 request to my sitemap. This way, anyone who comes into my blog using the old url will be redirected to my sitemap and they can find the content that they want. You can choose to redirect to your archive or any url you want. There is also one option to redirect all your WWW to non-WWW and vice versa.

Now, you will ask me why I didn’t just redirect the expired url to the new permalink. Well, that’s because to do that, you need to know how to use regular expressions to change a range of url. I don’t know how to do that at the moment.

Results

Over the past 2 days, I have 62 visitors where 13 of them went to my sitemap (according to Google Analytic). I will assume the 13 visitors was redirect there by the plugin. All of them will have encountered the dreadful 404 and leave if I have not redirect them. That’s how useful this plugin is.

Is there an easier way to repair the old permalinks? Please comment or contact me by email to tell me.

Technorati Tags: wordpress plugin, redirection, 404 pages

Image credited to: http://www.fromthefrontend.co.uk

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A rant on the WordPress editor

Today I am going to write a negative post (a rant, bombast, diatribe, tirade, all found on the wonderful thesaurus.com) about the wysiwyg rich text editor of WordPress. I don’t like to write negative stuff, but just need to get this off my chest.

I wrote a post yesterday about effective presentation. It had two youtube videos embedded within. I formatted everything properly with the Windows Live Writer which is a wonderful editor. At about 11.30pm (UTC+8), I publish the post to the blog. Everything was ok when I view it in my browser. As I read through, I find that one of my subheadings is not bold, so I switch over to the WordPress editor to add the bold tag.

After I publish again, all hell breaks loose. The paragraphs got mash up together. The youtube videos caused uneven CSS style. Trying to save it using the Wordpress editor is useless as it seems to have a self correcting system that deletes irrelevant code. Basically, the editor had an auto-immune disease.

I took one hour to write that post and another hour to try to save it.

From WordPress own Codex:

Use a Text Editor to Edit Files

If you will be making changes to files outside of the built-in [[]]File Editor, use a text editor. DO NOT USE A WORD PROCESSING PROGRAM. Word processors change the quote marks to characters and may convert other characters or bring in unwanted code which will cause the file to break when used. There are also some HTML generator programs that should not be used for similar reasons.

That is good advice. Just apply it to your own WYSIWYG editor.

Now, for something more constructive.

How I formatted it back.

I just re-publish it from Windows Live Writer. I got everything back the way they are. You can also edit in a text editor, as suggested in the block quote above, then paste everything back. The key point is you must not edit it again within the WordPress editor, as it will attack the code again.

The same goes for the scripts within the post. Like Amazon or Auction Ads scripts. Once you add it in and publish, you must not edit it within the WordPress environment. It will rearrange the script to conform to its code structure and the ads will not show up after you re-publish.

Hope you find this useful. If you know of any other solutions to this or you disagree, please send in your comments for discussion.

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How to do an effective presentation

So, what prompt me to do this topic? Well, I felt inspired after viewing this video presentation of HitTail. I chance upon it while searching for a tool for keyword research. HitTail goes deeper, it delves into the longtail of your keywords and suggest new keyword topics. Anyway, that’s not the topic for today. Enjoy this first.

What does it do right?
Although, it is a video presentation, that looks like a presentation that you can do with your powerpoint. If I can do a presentation like that in my workplace, I will be getting a standing ovation when I finish. Some of the points I like:

• Uses Graphics and animations effectively to illustrate its points.
• Explain how the product is useful to you rather than how great the product is.
• Adhere to KISS principle by keeping the “slides” clean and not cramped up with bullet points

How to apply these to your presentation?

1. Know your subject. It would be good if you are able to have your presentation speech ready before you do your presentation slides. This way, you will be able to cater your slides to your speech. You will have a tendency to read what is on your slides if you prepare the slides first.
2. Show only critical keywords or meaningful graphics on the slides. Your audience won’t have time to listen to you and read your slides at the same time. Most will choose to read your slides.
3. Cater your presentation for your audience. Show how useful your product is to them. Tell how your services will help them. Explain how your results will benefit them. It’s all about the audience.
4. Have a pause or silent time in between heavy points. This gives both you and the audience a rest to prepare for the next point. Kevin explain much better in his article “The Pause That Refreshes“. Personally, I think the video presentation’s pace above is a bit fast; I could absorb more if there are some pause in between.
5. Rehearse. Everyone knows this but nobody wants to do it. It not only helps to smoothen your flow of speech but you can come up with new ideas and insight while rehearsing. Darren from Problogger tells a story about rehearsing his preaching.

I am sure all of you have watched this but I still want to show it. Steve Jobs is surely one of the great speakers of our time.

Technorati Tags: presentation, steve jobs, hittail

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