wordpress book theme

Posted on November 27, 2008
Filed Under random | 2 Comments

Wordpress is a great CMS for all manner of content - but can it cope with a whole novel? I don’t think so. But you could give one a fighting chance using this theme as a starting point:

This theme has been out a while, has a really strong community feel around the comments, and is continually being improved. A great exampe of how doing something a bit unique can garner a strong following.

Chris who built the thing is working on another theme, apparently, which is more pared down for writers.

Wordpress mechanic - running slowly?

Posted on November 27, 2008
Filed Under mechanic | Leave a Comment

So you think you have a slow running wordpress install. How do you quantify the slow ‘feel’ of the site before you start ranting at your host?

Here is a single line of code you can add to your theme footer to tell you how long your page took to pull together.

<p>The WP monkeys took <?php timer_stop(1) ?>s to build this!</p>

This adds a simple line to the very bottom of your site with - surprisingly enough - the time it took to build your page.

But what is a slow time? Worry about anything over a second. Worry a bit about anything over half a second. Under half a second and you’ll be fine unless you have a very busy blog.

magazine style themes

Posted on November 27, 2008
Filed Under themes | 1 Comment

A good magazine style theme can turn a pretty dull blog into a professional, readable, valuable website. It does this through two main factors.

A The layout is more digestibe to a wider audience of non blog reading web surfers. By looking like a ‘normal’ website it scares less people.

B The layout is normally far more dependent on standardised and good quality images. This forces the author to focus on good quality images - lifting the standard of that important first impression.

A quick word of warning though - these themes often require the use of custom fields. This means that you need just a little more technical confidence than with some blog themes. For this reason I’d always recommend installing these on a test blog first.

The themes Here are a few of the better magazine themes out there. Far from a comprehensive list, this isn’t smashing magazine! Add your favorite to the comments if I haven’t covered it.

http://equilibrium.madebyon.com/

Fakeblog

Mimbo 2

Revolution Lifestyle

EFFEIGHT (technically a portfolio theme, but would work for a nichey little magazine too)

hubspot revisited

Posted on November 27, 2008
Filed Under experiments, opinion | 2 Comments

Back in feb I ran this site through the hubspot website analyser tool and scored 71/100. Oooh - I wonder what it’ll score this time?

Thanks to my break from posting I suspect it’ll be a significant drop off if the scoring has any real meaning. So… moment of truth…

68. A three point drop despite hardly posting for weeks. Suggests that either:

A - Bloggers don’t need to post anything to maintain a quality site

or

B - The websit egrader needs to have a new element added to the algorithm to take this factor into account.

Or am I missing the point here? No - I don’t think I am. Not posting is shabby behavior, and offers no reward to the returning visitor. The score needs a shorter half life - where unless you maintain a posting frequency your score diminishes. I’m now on the hunt for some other benchmarking sites - anyone know of any?

wpg relaunch

Posted on November 27, 2008
Filed Under design | 1 Comment

Following a brief yet all too lengthy absence, the wp guy returns to delight and entertain with wordpress related googies! Hurrah. Spinnin’ those discs of blog engine goodness!

Thanks to everyone who asked where he was hiding!

Quicklinking del.icio.us bookmarks for November 25th through June 9th

Posted on June 9, 2008
Filed Under random | Leave a Comment

These are my links for November 25th through June 9th:

2.5 + spam anyone?

Posted on May 2, 2008
Filed Under opinion | 2 Comments

Has anyone, like me, found a barrage of spam not being trapped by Akismet over the past few days since 2.5.1 came out? Being somewhat too busy I am only getting round to the 2.5 -> 2.5.1 upgrade now. But first - a bunch of spam to hand pick out of the comments. Shows how effective Akismet is normally I guess - hopefully 2.5.1 related. Fingers crossed.

Try ScribeFire - it’s nice

Posted on February 20, 2008
Filed Under editor, opinion | 2 Comments

Finally - I’ve succumbed to a browser plugin editor for WordPress. I’m an old fashioned guy and tend to stick to the core admin theme, and core editor just… because. But frustration at switching accounts and waiting 20 minutes for the ‘add hyperlink’ panel to appear (ok I exaggerate) started getting to me. So this post is being written using ScribeFire. Try it. It’s nice.

“ScribeFire (previously Performancing for Firefox) is a full-featured blog editor that integrates with your browser and lets you easily post to your blog.

ScribeFire (previously Performancing for Firefox) is a full-featured blog editor that integrates with your browser and lets you easily post to your blog. You can drag and drop formatted text from pages you are browsing, take notes, and post to your blog.”

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