New Version of WordPress Blog Software

January 31, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Wordpress.org released version 2.1, codenamed Ella (for jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald) in mid-January.

So far, I like the changes and improvements. Upgrading from the previous version was easy, although it required locking the site and deleting almost all the previous WordPress files and replacing them with the new versions of the files. This step was necessary because some of the files were renamed (so old file names were obsolete).

Fortunately I didn’t have to rework any of my template customizations.

The only problem I had was that I accidentally uploaded my revised .htaccess file, the one with the password protection turned on, into my account’s root directory — and managed to password lock ALL of my web pages in all my domains. Arghhh! Resolving the problem was easy once I figured out what I did…

Posted by Terry Stockdale | Filed Under Apache Web Server, Blogs, PHP Scripting, Templates 

Good and bad points of web design templates

January 23, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Andrew West has a very interesting article about using purchased web site templates in his Wongablog.

After starting with a relative’s purchased site template, he finally bit the bullet and redesigned it using CSS instead of the tables design.

Posted by Terry Stockdale | Filed Under Blogs, HTML, Templates, Web design tools 

Joel’s lost his mind

January 22, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Maybe it’s all he money he’s making from Adsense…

http://www.drawingontheweb.com/r/ads1995special

Adsense guru Joel Comm wrote an ebook a few years ago called Adsense Secrets – What Google Never Told You About Making Money With Adsense. I bought it — at the price of $79.

Then, he came out with the 2nd edition — and I bought it at about a 50% upgrade price.

Then, he came out with the 3rd edition. He raised the list price to $97, too. But I got it from him for a pretty good upgrade price.

I still think each of these purchases was worthwhile. Each edition was updated and had a lot of new tips and techniques.

But, now, Joe’s lost his mind!

Now, he’s dropped the price to $19.95. I don’t know how long the price will be so low, but now’s your chance to get his book at a great price.

http://www.drawingontheweb.com/r/ads1995special

Posted by Terry Stockdale | Filed Under Adsense, Advertising, Blogs, Monetizing Your Site, Yahoo Publisher Network 

Windows Server 2003 Web Hosting

January 19, 2007 | Leave a Comment

My web sites are all hosted on at a web hosting company that uses BSD, Apache, PHP, Perl, MySQL and provides install wizards for lot of other free open-source packages. I have FrontPage Extensions 2002, the latest and final version that Microsoft has said they will release, available, too.

I code my web sites at the PHP, HTML and CSS levels, and I usually tweak the open-source packages like WordPress so that I can get just the visual presentation that I want.

But, if I wanted to use the latest version of FrontPage (FrontPage 2003, which has web site interactive features that aren’t available in FrontPage Extensions 2002 ) I would need to use a web host that provided Windows Server 2003 web hosting.

Similarly, if I wanted to program using Microsoft’s ASP script or Microsoft SQL Server, I would have to find Windows Server 2003 web hosting.

I recently found an option for Windows Server 2003 Web Hosting – priced at only $7.96/month! . I haven’t tried them yet, since I’m not currently doing ASP or FrontPage 20003, but what I’ve seen so far looks good.

Easy CGI Web Hosting - $7.96/month

Posted by Terry Stockdale | Filed Under FrontPage, Microsoft SQL Server, PHP Scripting, Web design tools, Windows Server 2003 

Bad Web Design #1

January 12, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Looks like Jason Berberich is starting a series of bad web design reviews. Or, perhaps this might be the only one — he’s featuring it because of the hour+ that he spent on hold waiting for tech support..

Check out his Bad Web Design #1: Symantec Mysupport . He’s got a very valid point. I’ve run into poorly designed customer service sites like this before. If you need to do customer support, the last thing you need to do is aggravate your customer one more time.

Or, make that, one last time…

Posted by Terry Stockdale | Filed Under Usability, Visitor Experience 

IE7 Web Developers Nightmare

January 7, 2007 | Leave a Comment

IT Gears has an interesting article on IE7 incompatibilities.

Looks like the author ran into a few more of the incompatiblities that I have, although I was very displeased at the look of some of my web sites when I first saw them under IE7.

My earlier IE7 articles talk about some of those bugs (like the one with the center tag).

Posted by Terry Stockdale | Filed Under CSS, HTML, IE7, JavaScript, Visitor Experience 

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