Backup Buddy Plugin – A Dream Come True

If you have read my blog, attended my workshops, or even casaully discussed WordPress with me, you know my feelings about backing up your files. Yes, most servers and hosts do it routinely, and yours might be one of them. But I don’t like to rely on them.

I always recommend using WP DB Backup plugin for your database which it basically all of your content — pages and posts. But what about your other WordPress files. And all the media you have uploaded? Yes, you can back those up usually using an FTP client, but maybe you don’t have the know how or the time.

I know what you are thinking.

This sounds like an ad.

Well, in a way maybe it is. But PlugInBuddy.com from iThemes, has come up with Backup Buddy. It’s great. And it backs up everything.

A side note. I was concerned the otther day when a client that I was doing consulting told me another “so called” WordPress expert told her to just use the export tool, and that will backup everything. Not! What are these people anyway, giving away wrong info!

Yes, I am an affiliate for this, a few bucks in my pocket. And yes, it’s not a free plugin. But damn, it’s great. And well worth the money!

WordPress 2.9 – Update Success

This is the second day since WordPress 2.9 has officially been released. Normally, I wait a couple of weeks to upgrade. But this time I took the dive and the update went through seamlessly. In fact, I have seen a lot of the same results via Twitter. Sounds like a lot of the bugs were worked out in beta. Way to go WordPress!

Of course, I did backup all my files and database just in case!

I will come back and post any plugin or widget conflicts as I hear them.

And how did your experience go?

Changing Your Page Title in the Nav Bar

You create a page. You title it “About Joe Smith,” which is what you want it to say on the page. But in your nav bar, you just want “About”. Here is a simple way around this problem.

First you will need to install the plugin All In One SEO Pack. This is a great plugin and one you should be using anyway. I’m not going to use this post to tell your all it’s features, but do check it out.

Once installed and enabled, you will find this box at the bottom of every post and page you create. But you will only see this line for your pages.

Menu label:

Simply type in what you want to appear in your nav bar, save and presto!

WP125 – 125×125 Ad Management Plugin for WordPress

Okay, instead of listing my 10 tops plugins, which of course number more than ten, I thought I would introduce you to one that I have found useful if you are running 125 pixel x 125 ads. It’s called WP125, an excellent ad management plugin and easy to use. We use it for our affiliate partners that you can find on the left.

Below you can set a screen shot of setting up each ad. As you can see, it’s pretty straight forward and intuitive. Beyond that, there’s an ad management screen that shows up on your main page of your dashboard.

It has some great features including:

• You can do a one- or two-column display and show as many ads as you want either randomly or in a specified order.
• It will keep track of how many clicks for each ad.
• You can choose how long you want the ad to run, by date or by number of days. It will be taken off on that date and will be moved in an inactive screen where you can activate it again. Or you can choose to remove the ad manually.
• When an ad slot is empty, a placeholder ad of your choice will be displayed. This could be a “Your Ad Here” image linking to a page with statistics and pricing, or an affiliate link.
• You can receive email notifications when an ad expires.

As of this post, it works with 2.8, and we are using it with 2.8.4.

So if you are looking for a simple ad management plugin, WP125 could very well be your answer.

I Survived My 2.8 Update!

Just had to do a quick post as I finally made the move to update to version 2.8. From past experience, I have found it useful not to jump on the bandwagon and update the minute the new version comes out. It’s pretty much my practice across the board with most hardware and software.

I did take the time to read other horror stories via Twitter and LinkedIn, took note of all the disappointments and frustrations, and basically, sat back and waited. Nearly 30 days later, with some of the bugs worked out, on the day after the 4th of July, I decided to take the plunge.

I anticipated similar fireworks and explosions that had been a constant for the past two days.

Fortunately, it didn’t happen.

Like a good WordPress neurotic, I:

• backed up my files (although I do use WP-Dbmanager plugin for auto updates)
• turned off all of my plugins and updated them — several had updated versions for 2.8, lucky me (and yes all 14 plugins)
• clicked my auto install update
• activated plugins again
• and presto, my site worked like a charm, and 2.8 was active

I must note that we do use a premium theme from StudioPress that survived the update without a glitch.

(Heavy sigh). Now it’s off to update client sites. So far 3 updated, and things are good.

If you updated recently, let me know how it went for you!

WordPress 2.8 is Officially Released

As of Wed., June 10th, WordPress 2.8 is out. There are some nice new features, nothing major, but worth checking out.

If you are on WordPress.com, you are updated automatically.

If you have your WordPress on your own server, when updating, remember to:

• Backup your database and files before updating.
• If you are using a free theme or a paid premium theme, find out if they have made it WordPress 2.8-compatible. If they haven’t, try the update, but again remember to backup. If your theme has issues, upload the old files again and wait till your theme is updated before going to 2.8 again.
• If you do need to update your theme, and you had someone customize it, talk to them before installing the updated version of your theme.
• After updating, if your blog or website starts having problems, deactivate any plugins one by one to see if that is what’s causing the issue.
• Check your widgets and make sure they are working with the new version.

And finally, don’t feel you have to update right away. Make sure you eventually do it, but you don’t need to be the first one on your block!

If anyone else has suggestions or insights, please feel free to comment.

A Peek at Some WordPress Beta 2.8 Features

WordPress Beta 2.8 has been out for a bit and I have finally taken some time to look at the new features. There’s some good stuff there! I won’t take the time to go through them all, but here are some that are worth highlighting.

THEMES

Now you can upload themes through the admin panel. In 2.7 and older, you needed to use FTP clients. And since there are a lot of WordPress users out there that don’t get “ftp” they limited themselves to the preinstalled themes. And an added benefit: now you can browse themes and search via keywords, and also apply filters too based on width, colours and columns. In addition the management of themes has improved. Before, you had to select the theme you wanted, and then either press activate or close after viewing a preview of the theme. Now you get options to activate immediately if you want, and also to delete the theme if you want as well.

WIDGETS AND PLUGINS

Although there isn’t any major change to the widget view, it it a lot cleaner and easier to use. As far as plugins, you can now edit them from within your editor. If a plugin is not working well, and you have the know how in coding, you can tweak it in order to get it working correctly.

COMMENTS

The new option to edit individual comments from the edit post selection saves a bit of time to do the standard delete, spam and reply to comments.

DASHBOARD

Again, just a bit making things a bit easier, you can now change the look of your dashboard and can set the number of columns that you want to be shown. Anything from one to four columns is allowed.

NOTE: If you are on the free WordPress.com, some of the features are not available.

So that’s just a quick preview. There is a whole bunch of other changes and improvements, but for most WordPress users, these are the one’s that will be more obvious. Not sure when we are looking at for the full release, but the Beta version does seem pretty stable. In any case, it’s just around the corner.

Great Form Plugin for WordPress

I have dabbled and tested several different form plugins for WordPress and found cformsII to be one of the best. Especially if you are looking for something versatile and that you can customize.

What cforms II does is allow you to create all sorts of contact forms, with how many fields you desire, and with several types of input boxes. Which means you can use single text inputs, check boxes, select boxes, radio buttons, password boxes, file uploads and a heck of a lot more.

Additionally, you can also customize the messages, the fields that are required, the email addresses to be used, and even create different contact forms to be used in different locations of the site.

If you want a form plugin that will kick butt, and allow you to create multiple, user-friendly forms on your blog or website, cforms is your choice.