WordPress

WordPress: Showing Home + Static Page

Hi folks

I can’t believe how easy a solution was available for this problem, and I fixed it myself after hours of searching!

I set up a new website using WordPress. No issue. Normally when I set one of these up I just use the blog posts as the first page and never have to to encounter this problem.

However, this time I wanted to set up a Static Page as my Home Page. No biggie – WordPress has that functionality right under the hood. Go to Settings/Reading/Front Page Displays and select “static page” then choose which page you want as your new ‘home’ or front page and where you want to refer to your blog posts. Easy as.

Trouble was when I did that I ended up with both two navigation menu items highlighted as the home page. Grrr. I figured this must be a commonRead More »WordPress: Showing Home + Static Page

WordPress, Cutline, Archives and Backup!

There are time online when you are not just a marketer but you become a tech-head too. Yesterday I mucked up my blog.

I had been using the Cutline theme by maestro Chris Pearson. It’s an older theme but I like it’s visual simplicity. I noticed in the Cutline Options sub-menu that you could create an Archives page easily.

I clicked the “enable archives page” in Cutline Options. Then I set up the archive page in the Pages submenu. Voila … I had an archives page.

Whoa!! Wait a minute. Now the Archives page is my default first page and I can’t figure out how to change it. I failed to notice the little extra text underneath the ‘enable’ button that said this would make the Archives page my First Page. So no matter what I did, the Archives page hijacked my site and I couldn’t get my site to show my posts asRead More »WordPress, Cutline, Archives and Backup!

WordPress Security and Htaccess

I’m always looking for ways to protect my sites after I was hacked a couple of times elsewhere. Came across these handy tips I thought I would share. http://thematosoup.com/tips/wordpress-security-htaccess/

Hosting Videos in WordPress

Hats off to Bruce Wedding from Mexico for some brutal, “just get it done” talk on a recent WF post:

Quit screwing around and get an Amazon S3 account. There’s no money down, no monthly commitment, just pay for what you use at DIRT cheap rates. I’d be surprised if your bill is more than $1 a month. After that, produce MP4 files, upload using the S3 Organizer Add-in for Firefox, set the ACL to everybody and copy the url to the clipboard. Install the JW Player plugin for your blog and use the shortcode: [jwplayer config=”myplayer” file=”myamazonurl.com/bucket/video.mp4″]
Done.
If you want more protection, use S2Member and they have built in ways to really lockdown your videos making them impossible to share and very hard to download.

Can’t get much clearer than that!

Thanks Bruce. I had a similar issue about hosting videos offline when my government clients locked down access to YouTube. Now, I’m sorted.

Better Ways To Blog

So I was just checking out the WordPress 2011 Challenge and came across this girl’s post which has some great tips to share for those who are blogging. Check it out for a few brilliant ideas: Original post appeared at http://phdpanacea.wordpress.com/2011/01/19/how-to-find-time-to-blog/ but is no longer available. Here’re excerpts of her post… “ 1. Be realistic Set yourself a target you think you can keep to, say a post a week – but then don’t feel guilty if you miss a week or two. A blog is supposed to be fun and useful, not a chore or something to beat yourself… Read More »Better Ways To Blog

Christmas Snow On Your Blog

Using Word Press? Notice this in the last update? Quick and easy way to add a seasonal feel to your blog if you don’t have time to change templates or fiddle with graphics. Simply tick the box in settings and it’s snowing!