Archive for the ‘Tips’ Category

Okay. I’ll admit it… I completely messed up. Regular readers may know that I recently wrote this pretty excellent guide on how to set up the Semi-Static WordPress homepage but no-one noticed the *huge* error that I had in the instruction.

No-one noticed *except* from a really amazing Texan Liberty Lady (Carol) who describes herself as *green, green, green* when it comes to WordPress and yet still attempted to take on the Semi-Static homepage. Now that’s really ballsy if you ask me – it’s quite an advanced technique.

Anyway, she emailed me and let me know that she’d followed the instructions and it wasn’t working.

That’s right people. I had a boo boo on my semi (I’ll let you imagination run with that one).

So she kindly let me have access to her site and I had a look around. And you know what? Completely my fault – my “how-to” guide was more of a “how-not-to” guide. DOH! A Homer moment – that’s what happens when you post just before bedtime… (never again!)

Well, guess what? Now that sent her new instructions, she’s successfully implemented it on her Ron Paul website (I was like “Ron Paul Who?“, as I don’t read newspapers and haven’t done for several years now and shy away from any type of political discussion as I find it really messes with my inner wellbeing, man…).

Also – credit where credit’s due – Carol also sent me a tip on updating the code I sent her. Yes, she even spent the time looking up the WordPress Codex to find out more about how to do this. Now, if someone this green spends this much time making sure her website is high quality when it comes to WordPress, then some of you other political bloggers should probably watch out – she’s determined and will probably be spending a lot more time promoting her candidate of choice!

Me… I’m staying out of the fray. I’m all for Democracy and freedom of speech, yada, yada, blah, blah, blah… but the last time Bush got in, so that’s that say about the so-called Democratic system. More of this to come – I’m currently re-writing a blog post that doesn’t make me sound an ideological fascist (cause I’m not! I’m politically apathetic with a tendancy to dislike the masses for their inability to differentiate between what sucks and what doesn’t).

I digress. As usual. Because it’s my blog and I’m tangential…

So… anyone up for a 3rd draft of the Semi for WordPress? Here’s proper instructions this time. An Updated How-To Guide for WordPress Semi-Static Homepages

It’s great having kids. You get to play with stuff and re-live your youth.

Or not, as the case maybe. I mean, I remember Action Man with the eagle eyes and playing with the Evel Knievel wind up toys (if you were lucky! Man, I’m showing my age…). I don’t seem to remember having to plug things in; download drivers and then spend a couple of hows working out why the damn USB connection doesn’t seem to work and then having to visit the website, trawl through FAQs to find the patch so that you can actually start “playing”.

What am I talking about? Well, it’s some new toy for kids to nag their parents about getting and then have to collect the entire set. Of which there are apparently over 40 of them!

Anyway, funnily enough, there is another tip I’ll be writing about today – although it’s not one on WordPress.

Trust me though – if you have kids and they have one of these new “UB Funkeys”. You might need these tips just to save on a lot of hassle later on! UB Funkey? UB Out-Of-Pocket, more like »

Okay, here’s another tip.

For those of you who’ve struggled with getting Camtasia SWF files into your WordPress pages, stop searching. You’ve found the right page.

Let me just say, I’ve struggled with it and spent several hours trying to figure this out a couple of days ago, so with any luck this will help you save *a lot* of time (as well as hassle with trying to use various plugins like Kimili Flash Embed to do the job!). Embed Camtasia SWF into WordPress » Read More »

I was going to release this video earlier this week but I’ve not been feeling very well.

I’m still not feel 100% but slowly on the mend.

Anyway, this is a very short one from me (unusually!).

It’s the Semi-Static Homepage technique taken to extremes.

Again, I hope Lorelle enjoys this as it was her that originally inspired me to share this “tip” – the last time she was left speechless. I wonder what the reaction will be this time . This video isn’t a tip as such, it’s more of a demonstration of how far you can push WordPress when you put your mind to it.

I hope you enjoy it.

I’m back off to bed now…

It’s been an interesting week.

It’s been one of those periods where it’s been necessary to take a step back, re-assess the current situation and re-double my efforts. Admittedly, not much has really been done this last week. Not for the lack of trying. Or the lack of enthusiasm. Sometimes the universe just delivers a whole heap of junk mail and you just got to sort out the essentials from the spam.

It’s time to start re-focusing on what really matters. And what really matters right now is Excellence…

To kick off tonight’s show, I’d like to start with another little clip from Bill Hicks… (Get used to it people, he’s a major influence and you really got to listen to what this chain-smoking, dead guy is saying!).

Internet Marketing Excellence? Play from the heart >>

I’m a great fan of Lorelle. She writes some really interesting stuff about WordPress and Blogging and you should all check out her stuff.

Recently (well, last week – but I’m slow at getting round to things as I’m quite busy), she posted up an interesting “challenge” to “help kick [our collective] blogging ass” as she puts it.

Well, I thought I’d share with you all a tip on something that I’ve recently been working on. I’m quite pleased with the result even though the solution isn’t the most ideal and rather raw. It isn’t the most elegant solution as I’d have hoped it to be but it works…

This isn’t specifically a “blogging” tip – it’s more of a theme tip. Or rather a way in which you can push the boundaries of WordPress if you’re inclined to think of WordPress as something other than “a blogging tool”.

And I do.

Now, I know some of you WordPress and Blogging purists are going to hate me. But hey, screw that – WordPress is Open Source and the whole point of Open Source projects is that you can push them to become what you need them to do. Right?

I’m not about to get into a debate on the whole purity of the blog thing right now. Instead, I’m going to show you what’s possible if you put your mind to it.

As you may have gathered, I’m taking up Lorelle’s tips challenge on this one and this post is about creating a Semi-Static WordPress Homepage.

Are you ready? Are you confused? Read on and I’ll explain everything. Semi-Static WordPress Home Page: A How To Guide

This post is dedicated to all you tight-fisted, freeloading, miserly, penny-pinching, curmudgeonly, skinflints and tightwads.

John Godley from Urban Giraffe has just hit upon yet another *GENIUS* idea to start getting you penny pocketing cheapskates to pay up for the simply amazing work that he’s done.

Not only that, he’s created yet another mind-blowing plugin that’s going to help your WordPress sites. Kitten Pay: Cough Up Or Cry

As some of my regular readers may know, I’ve recently changed the style of this site to be congruent with the way that I really am and want to be.

Since coming back from the Rich Schefren (aff) Accelerate seminar, I’ve been doing a lot of contemplation and thinking about things that I used to enjoy doing. Things that made me laugh out loud. Things I forgot about but am now revisiting and resurrecting to spice up what could end up a horribly miserable existence unless I pull my finger out…

So anyway, it’s time for a bit of humour from Bill Hicks, I think. And I think it very apt for the direction that I’m now going in.

Some of you guys across the pond might or might not have heard of him. In comedy circles in the early 90s, Bill was *huge* over here in the UK and achieved cult status for his raw style of humour that was often irreverent and extremely political. The reason for this may have been because Bill actually understood “irony” – I know you guys are still getting to grips with understanding this bizarre, quaint and typically English concept!

As always, there is a point to this post. Enjoy the following clip from a show Bill did here in the UK – Internet Marketer’s especially…

(Oh… and it’s NSFW as it has a few expletives in there) Read more »

What’s a four letter word, ending in K, meaning “intercourse”?

I’m sure I can guess pretty much what most of you are thinking…

Four letter word, ending in K meaning "intercourse"... It's obvious, isn't it?

Yeah, yeah, yeah… I know. My new theme isn’t quite working.

I’ve just had Andy Beard email me about it this evening (and Jane over at Cyres Cafe mentioned it as well) to say that the HTML Purified plugin isn’t working as expected on the comments (Thanks to both of you, btw!). PHP Warnings – ouch! The plugin is pretty new and will probably need a bit more testing – this is one of John’s plugins but he’s probably battling some other WordPress plugin issues at the moment… WordPress Theme and Plugin issues continued