Women are at the forefront of WordPress. They are the users who use it to blog their ideas and manage their business websites. Of course men use it too. Women though like WordPress because it puts the control of their website in their hands—I’m told they like the feeling of empowerment. It’s also easy to go from novice to full-fledged blogger or webmaster in a short period of time—I’m told women don’t have a lot of time to tinker around learning new software (believe me, I understand that point!).

You don’t have to look into university classrooms or tech schools for WordPress developers. The composition of graduating classes isn’t an indicator of who is working with WordPress. Why? It’s open source software so anyone with knowledge of PHP can develop for it. No college degree needed. Hop on and enjoy being part of WordPress.
No obligation, no registration cloaks who is working with WordPress. I see women (and men) WordPress users through my web practice. I’ve also gotten to know developers of both sexes. WordPress is truly open source—there’s no means of tracking the demographics of who blogs with it and who develops for it. When you download a new Plugin it won’t tell you if the developer was male or female—no sexism on WordPress.

So if you’re wondering where are the WordPress women… check out the blogs in your community, the websites of entrepreneurs in your business networking groups and WordPress site developers like myself. You’ll find plenty of men and women making WordPress work.

WordPress is genius— publishes your posts on a unique URL (you know, that thing that starts with HTTP://).  This goes on behind the scenes and helps to organize your blog.

If your blog is set up so that new posts show up on the Home page, you’ll notice that the newest posts are always right there, first in line to be read on the blog. However, it’s important when sharing your posts to share the URL (again that address that starts with HTTP) for a single post. It’s logical, if you share the home page it will change with newer posts. If you share the address to a single post, people can go right to the post at any time and see what you want them to see.

Here’s an example: If you send an email or an enewsletter with a link in it to your blog’s Home page you run the risk that the reader may wait to open it. What if you add a new post before they read your email? They will see your newest post not the one you wanted them to see.

Another time to watch your post links is when sharing on Facebook or other social networking site. If you use your blog’s web address visitors will land on your blog. If they check-in on the social site later, you run the risk that your Home page will be showing a newer post and they’ll miss your important post.

These issues are solved by linking to a single post. So to find the link to a single post you can open the WordPress dashboard and locate your posts. Just below the post title there will always be the link to the post and you can even get a shortened URL  to use when you’re short on space.

On most WordPress themes you can also go directly to your blog, click on the post title, this will take you to the single post.  Just copy the web address at the top of the screen in your browser window. That’s the URL to share.

Happy linking!

Recently the Portland Press Herald (that’s a Maine news blog) covered a breakfast cook-off. Let’s check-in to see what 3 elements they included to this live blog take shape.

1. Stack Your Entries In Chronological Order. The cook-off takes on suspense and a sense of timing by adding to their event post every few minutes.  They remember that all good writing has a beginning, middle, and an end, so their last post is a wrap up of the event.  A live blog without a wrap-up leaves readers hangin’.

2. Include Photos. Not every event, especially virtual events, lend themselves to photographs. However when you have photos you have your reader’s attention.

3. Tell Time. Don’t forget to differentiate each post by posting the time.  Live blogging implies being timely. When configuring your live blogging plugin, be sure to set the time.

4. Say It’s Live. I’m big on putting it in the post title– say it’s “live blogging” so the search engines will pick it up.

Going to a conference or trade show? It’s your chance to blog live. Doing a webinar? It’s an opportunity to do live blogging.

The big blogs all have easy subscribe options.

CBS News (yes, it uses RSS like a WordPress blog) gives readers several options to get the latest news stories (circled in green). Like CBS News on Facebook and you’ll get updates in your Facebook account. Not a Facebook user you can get updates in Twitter or Google+.  Like videos better than reading the news?– then you can subscribe in YouTube and watch news stories. The important lesson from CBS is that they are mainstream and so are their readers, so they give them mainstream options for following the latest news.

MTV has a follow button. It opens up a box that gives readers 6 options to read their latest entertainment news stories. They deliver their stories to the top “readers”: Google, Yahoo, Netvibes, Bloglines, Newsgator, and Windows Live.  See those black and gray buttons at the top of their page? MTV also has a Facebook page, Twitter account, and Google+. If you don’t want to follow MTV in a reader, you can get their latest news by following them on your favorite social networking site.

Check out your blog. Is it missing a way for people to subscribe? Give your readers at least one way to get your future posts via RSS feed and at lease one way to get updates on a social networking site. Today’s the day to reach more readers by getting this done.

The latest hard sale (or is it a scam?) comes from China and it may already be sitting in your email box. The email claims that a company is applying in China to use your brand name, which happens to be your registered domain name.  The email hints that your branding is in jeopardy. The sender, in one email, offered to handle this, presumably straightening out or preventing the registration of your brand in China. Later emails made offers to sell the company numerous domains with .cn (China) extensions.

Who are these guys? One of my clients received an email. They aren’t on the list of companies officially authorized to register domains http://www.internic.net/alpha.html.  GoDaddy in the US is on the list. 1&1 in Germany is on the list. Tucows in Canada is on the list. When in doubt, check the list of authorized domain resellers.

Are you planning to do business in China? If not why would you want a .cn domain name? Unless looking for a Chinese company, people in the US are not going to looking for .cn websites to visit.

If you get an email, don’t respond to it. These emails may be used to harvest valid email addresses for SPAM emails. Respond once, you may get a hundred offers for knock-off designer watches and male enhancement pills.

If you get an email don’t click any links. It’s unknown if these emails contain links to websites flush with cookies that will cause problems on your computer.   

When you have a dispute… One email begins “Notice: Regarding the Domain name  dispute and registration case, we did not receive any of your reply until now.”  If there ever is any kind of dispute about your .com address, then you will be contacted by the company that registered your .com domain. Even if the email looks like it’s from that company, follow the rules of no return emails and no click throughs. Go to the company’s website, login and look for messages on your account or call that company directly.

Don’t encourage these hard-sell guys. Don’t respond

Whether you intend to have your blog picked up by Google News or you’re just realizing the benefits of getting picked up by a news service, you’ll want to be sure your blog is prepared.

First, if you haven’t been to Google News, it’s time to explore. You’ll find articles from traditional news sources like CBS, BBC, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today and other news sources. Google doesn’t go out and buy news papers, and then clip and scan articles for the web. All of the news sources have an RSS feed (a blogging basic) so that when a news article is posted on their website the feed is picked up by Google News. RSS feed is at the core of getting news articles to Google, which means your blog has the same potential to get picked up by Google News as the big guys! That’s right – you’ll find Perez Hilton’s celebrity gossip blog in Google News along side the New York Times.

Getting into Google News isn’t just fate or coincidence:  your blog must be contain posts that are “news” and it should avoid self promotion or product promotion. Follow these 4 tips so your blog will be ready to submit to Google News.

1. Identify your writing staff. This is probably pretty simple if you already have an About Us page. Be sure the page is called “about us”, or other variations like “staff”, “authors”, or “writers”. This is where you identify your blog’s author by name and credentials. If you edit a blog that accepts submissions from multiple authors, you can list the authors or simply note that you have multiple blog contributors.

2. Have a contact page. If you expect to get in the news and remain anonymous, you’ll have to skip Google News. You don’t have to give Google a road map to your front door, but you will need to show a city and state location. I recommend to would-be bloggers that they treat a blog like any other part of their business, if you crave personal privacy, rent a P.O. Box, but show an address.

3. Name a news category. When you submit your blog to Google News, you’ll be asked for the web address where your news stories are published. You probably won’t be publishing all your blog posts in this category, but go ahead and name a category “News”. This will be an ideal category to publish event announcements, webinar details, and press releases. If you have already started posting to your blog, find your posts that qualify as “news” and move them to this new category before submitting the blog to Google News.

4. Don’t forget a site map. Last, but definitely not least, is the Google Site Map. Google is all about web structure and it loves XML site maps to figure its way around the structure of your website. If you are using blogging software like WordPress, Joomla, or Drupal, there are plugins available to create and update sitemaps.

With these tips in practice, you’ll be on your way to appearing in Google News and garnering your share of new blog readers!

1. Get It Off Your Server. For the blogger their WordPress dashboard is the only access they have to their site. To clean out malware you’ll need to FTP access and tenacity to search through hundreds of files. Infected files can’t be seen in the WordPress dashboard and it’s important to remove them from the server. If code is left on the server, there’s the risk of reinfection.

2. Get It All. When cleaning out hacked code aim to clear it all out. Part of the code can change the appearance of your website and it can be an “opening” or “hole” for the hacker to access your site again and install a new hack. The more thorough the clean up means you probably won’t be cleaning up again, and again.

3. Don’t Follow the Links. You may see that the infected code has links to other websites. Don’t be tempted to investigate these sites. That means don’t type the link into your browser and look at the website! These are sites put up by a hacker… do you really think they’re going to be safe for your computer?

4. Close the Door. Don’t forget… change your server login,  your FTP login, and your WordPress dashboard login just in case the hacker gained access through these access points!

5. Strengthen the Passwords. The hacker got into your site once… make it harder for them to get in again by not only changing passwords but beefing up your passwords. I don’t mean just adding a number to your current password– get a new, stronger password. If you’ve been using your pet’s name you’ll need to give it up: Change it from “Fido” to “5mypup63#u”. Make it long, make it strong.

before

Soothe the Soul is the healing practice of Deborah Pantalena. Both a RN and practitioner of Reiki, Reflexology, and Sound Healing, Deborah wanted to update her website to reflect her own duality and her own connection with nature– sea and sand, air and grass, trees and creatures.  WORDPRESS also fulfills Deborah’s need for a blogging area and to be able to refresh her website with new information and images.

Size does matter on a blog! If you post a photo that’s too wide it’s likely it will overtake the page when it’s viewed online. It’s an easy trap for the newbie blogger because almost always the dashboard’s editing box is much larger than area reserved for your post online– Of course it looks great until you post it online!

You can take preventative measure before posting. Start by familiarizing yourself with the maximum image width your blog will accommodate. On the dashboard, select MEDIA from the SETTINGS link in the left menu. This is where you’ll find the maximum image width.

When you insert a photo from the WordPress Media Library, look at the size options and select the option that is the same size or less than the maximum image width allowed.

Still having problems with wide photos? Then perhaps the maximum image width setting is too big. Go back to MEDIA in the SETTINGS menu and reset the maximum– 450px to 500px is a good place start.

Becoming aware of image width makes it easier too for imports form the hottest visual websites. When importing photos from Flickr.com (see Using Eye-Catching Photos from Flickr on Your WordPress Blog ) you’ll know to select a width that is less than or equal to the maximum image width on your blog. Knowing the maxium width makes it easier too to select the correct width of video to embed on a post.

Hacking doesn’t always take down a website or cause it to be blacklisted by the search engines, however it can do considerable damage to your reputation and to your readers’ in-boxes. Some hacks reach in and steal your email and use it to distribute SPAM. Some hacks, and this is what Nemonn looks like, create multiple links to promote dubious websites. So, although your site looks fine it’s best to do some testing and get your site back to a clean bill of health.

Take the Test: There are several free services online, however I found that SUCURI (http://sucuri.net/) quickly and correctly identified that the WordPress site was corrupted by a hacker. In this case, a bold red message stated, “Site infected with malware.”

An Ounce of Prevention: The best prevention is strong passwords. I know it seems draconian when Internet sites recommend that you add a number, a capital letter and a punctuation mark to your passwords. It’s your time and your money they’re trying to save. The hackers have programs that run a series of passwords on your site until they get access, so you have to out-smart them.

What to Update: Change your passwords on your hosting account, FTP account (through your hosting provider), and the password you use to gain access to your WordPress dashboard. I also recommend changing the password on your email account(s) and that means updating it on computers and smart phones too in order to maintain access to your emails.

Hacking doesn’t mean you have to go back to square-one and start from scratch with your WordPress site or blog. Cleaning out infected files, though, is the best plan to go forward.