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Pasting Code Into A WordPress Post

Whether you’re setting up an affiliate center for your products, or showing readers how to use code on their websites, you’ll want to be able to display code in your posts.

One a static HTML website, you can use a textarea, or HTML special characters to accomplish this. Unfortunately, it’s not so easy in WordPress.

It is possible though.

The first thing you need to do is install the WP-Syntax plugin.

Second, you’ll want to switch to the HTML editor (not the visual editor) and wrap the code you want to display in the following code:

<pre lang="text"><CODE></pre>

This way, when you paste the code that your readers need to copy, it will look like this:

<a href="http://www.michellewatersonline.com/pasting-code-into-a-wordpress-post/">Link to this post</a>

Is Your Website Safe?

Did you build your website using a PHP script? If so, you need to check your security practices to prevent your site from becoming victim to a recent wave of hacking.

Hackers have targeted sites built using WordPress, Zen Cart and other PHP-based scripts in recent weeks, according to SC Magazine.

Here are some tips to protect your site:

Choose a strong password. I recommend using a random password generator.

Keep your scripts and any plugins up to date

Choose a web host with strong security practices and server settings

For more information about securing your WordPress site, check out Regina Smola’s WP Security Lock site.

5 Free Tools That Can Help You Get a Head Start

How many free marketing tools have you tried over the years and wished you hadn’t? I know the feeling. You ended up spending so much time fighting with a piece of junk that it would have ended up being cheaper for you to have just bought something.

In spite of these experiences, there is not a home business owner on the planet who’d prefer to pay for something when they can get it free. Fortunately, free marketing tools are getting better and better – with developers often making money on the ad slots they provide in and around the site or on the tools themselves.

If you’re watching pennies, or just like to get a good bargain from time to time, consider these five free tools for marketers that you may need for 2010:

1.  CamStudio for Video Screen Capture Marketing

Camtasia can be pricey ($299) when you’re just starting out. But luckily for you, there’s an open source project called CamStudio that allows you to make an endless number of screen capture videos for free!

Pair your version of CamStudio with some free audio recording software at AudioFlash.org and you can create very professional videos to help you generate interest in your products and services.

2. GIMP for Graphic Creations

In spite of the funny name, this graphics program packs a lot of punch in a free package. Photoshop is often very hard for some non-tech savvy individuals to learn. And when you spend money on a tool like Photoshop, you want to have the shortest learning curve possible.

Now you can take your time and use GIMP instead. GIMP stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program and you can use it for free, along with their thorough documentation, to make call to action buttons, minisite graphics, ads and more.

3. WIX – Free Flash Website Design Tool

Flash sites are so expensive when you’re searching for a company or professional freelance individual to create one for you from scratch. With WIX, you can customize a template or make your own.

With a WIX site, you’ll have drawbacks, such as WIX ads being placed on your domain – and the domain won’t be your own dot com moniker, but you can upgrade when you have the money to invest in it and remove ads and use your own domain.

4. WordPress – Free Blog Software

Chances are you’ve heard of this one before, but some people still think they have to pay for a WordPress blog. Not true. You can either host a WordPress blog on their dot com site, or install it free on a domain that you own. As most marketers already know, WordPress is loved by Google if you utilize it right by posting relevant content on a regular basis.

Oh, and did I mention I love WordPress?

5. MailChimp – Free Autoresponder Tool

This tool is great for those with no list or a very small list to begin with. You can use MailChimp for free to store up to 500 contacts and send out up to 3,000 emails per month.

Using Blogs To Generate Income

If you’re not using a blog to communicate with your market, create relationships with your customers and generate more income for your business, you’re leaving a lot of money on the table.

So what’s the problem?

• Maybe you still think that blogs are for college kids to chat about last night’s part?
• Maybe you’ve heard of business blogging, but just don’t know how to use it for your site?

Much like article marketing and publicity, blogging is a key player in promoting our business to the people who need our products and services. Yeah, those people who want to spend money with our businesses.

Still confused? Here is a list of common ways that a blog can be used on your website:

1. Content management system (CMS) – By using blog software, you can efficiently mange the content of your website. Good content management system software allows you to add multiple authors, multiple blogs (if needed) and static pages to the website. It enhances readability and hence generates traffic on your website. (Software I recommend is WordPress.org)
2. Organizational updates/events – Blog software gives you the option to sort blog entries chronologically. The latest entry is given first place for better readability. You can also post to company blogs via email.
3. Develop effective customer relationships – A blog increases credibility and boosts customer relationships with an organization. A well-written blog provides a means of two-way communication. The blog author can present ideas, new concepts, provide information, education in each post. The users can ask questions and clarify doubts through the blog. A knowledgeable blog plays the role of ideal public relations.  It allows customers to retrieve information easily by using a properly categorized system or search function.
4. Boost product sales – A blog describing every dimension of your product and giving examples of its usage attracts customers to your website. Simultaneously, it keeps customers informed on the latest developments about the products or services of your company/business.
5. Press/news releases – You can use the blogs to boost the public relations efforts of your company. You can write informational blogs catering to your specific consumers as well as prospective clients.
6. Education based marketing – Blogs serve a role of a teacher, wherein the customers learn more about the product and send their queries to the company. Feedback from the company further give a boost to the interest of the customer in the product. These types of blogs are also perfect for capturing the interest of those who may be interested in a related field, but are not ready to buy the specific product or service yet.
7. Blogs for limited community – Blogs written by an individual or a small businessman to market its services or products can also create a small community. If you have a product or service that people are raving about, they will often congregate on your website to discuss the product, if you provide a place for them. The aim of such blogs is to focus on a specific and limited audience.
8. Blogs on technical subjects – Blogs giving relevant and detailed technical information on various issues are invariably used by service professionals. These blogs enhance their expertise and credibility in the eyes of those who seek to hire them.

Thus, blogs used in different applications can enhance customer experience, bring in new customers and ultimately improve the bottom line for busineses.

We're Having A Small Issue In Geek Land

I’m just going to warn you now: I’m not a coding geek. I’m a design geek, a writing geek, a Star Trek geek and a few other kinds of geeks. But I like to leave PHP to the coding geeks.

So, that may be one reason why we’re having this issue.

If you’ll take a peek at the comment area at the bottom of this post, you’ll notice that there are form fields to fill out, in order to tell us what you think. (Of course, if you’re logged into the site, you won’t see this.)

So, if you’re not logged in, you’ll see the problem. The email form field is missing:

I’ve posted for support on the StudioPress forums, where I downloaded the theme.

Here are the steps I’ve taken so far to try to resolve this issue:

1. Disabled all plugins. The issue remained.
2. Compared the template’s comments.php on my website to the one straight out of the zip file using Beyond Compare. They’re exactly the same.
3. Started searching WordPress support forum for the issue. Found one where website field was missing, but that was the result of a template coding error. The code in my comment template looks fine.

I’m currently at a loss. Anyone else with this issue?

Any coding geeks out there feeling generous?

UPDATE: If you’re wanting to comment on a post here, just register and login to the site. You’ll be able to comment without adding your email address then. Thank you!

Keeping Google Happy When You Move To A New Domain

If you were paying any attention while I setup this website, you’ll notice that I changed the domain name a couple of days ago. Why?

I realized who I wanted to help and how I planned to help them. The original domain name worked better for a different purpose. Since I’d only had that domain name for a few weeks, I decided it would be better to switch now, than to spend a bunch of time branding and promoting the other name.

Anyway, I wanted to share with you how I went about making the switch, so that Google will be happy and will continue to index my site. (According to Google’s Webmaster Tools, the search engine had already started to index the old site.) Here is what I did:

Moving my WordPress site to a new domain

Since my site is powered by WordPress, I backed up the database and the home directory files to my computer. My host provides cPanel, so it was a fairly easy task.

Since my web host allows me to have access to WHM, I added the new domain name to my account: HomeBusinessGeeks.com.

Once I had setup the new site, I uploaded the database to it. The, naturally changed the name of the database from:

oldusername_olddatabase to newusername_olddatabase

This meant that before I loaded the home page files into the public_html directory, I had to edit my wp_config.php file to correct the database name and database username. Which reminds me — and I almost forgot this when I was moving the site. You’ll need to make sure you recreate the database username and password in your new cPanel account. Just use the information from your configuration file and make sure you give the user full privileges.

Once I had the database and files uploaded, I also went into phpMyAdmin and edited the options table so that WordPress would recognize the new domain name.

Tired yet?

At this point, the new site worked. I did have to make a few changes to some of my plugins, but I won’t go into those here, since you may not have them.

Making Google happy

Now, for the part where Google comes in. I’d like to preface this section by saying that I had already added the old address to Google Webmaster Tools and Google had already indexed several pages.

Following Google’s instructions on how to move to a new domain, I removed the old domain from my server, and set it up as an addon domain to the new site. I also specifically setup a permanent 301 redirect to pages that already ranked well in the search engines or had a link to them from another site.

Then I went to back to Google Webmaster Tools and followed their instructions on how to submit a change of address for a site.

Once I’d completed the form, as shown above, I arrived at this page:

So now, it’s hurry up and wait — see how long it takes Google to index the new site. In the meantime, if you have a site to move, this is how to do it and let Google know what you’re up to.

I Love My WordPress For iPhone App

I would love it even better if I could turn my iPhone sideways and type with both thumbs. And I just realized today that I can’t reply to comments with it. So if I’m out running errands and someone comments on a post, I have to wait until I’m home before I can reply to them. Frustrating!

Other than those two complaints, I love the app. I can manage multiple blogs, comments, pages and posts. Not a bad deal, really.

Good news! It appears as if the developers are planning to add this ability to the application. Yea!!!

Need A Website In South Central Oklahoma?

Perhaps you can build it yourself.

I’m going to be teaching THREE web design related classes at Mid-America Technology Center during the spring semester.

Those classes include:

Web Design Basics

This class provides web page concepts using Microsoft’s Expression Web software. Concepts include usability and accessibility for various types of websites. You’ll create a website during class.

That said, you’ll need to make sure you have basic computer skills or else you’ll be lost. This class will be perfect for those who want to develop a small website that gets updated from just one computer once or twice a month, or less.

This class meets once a week, on Thursday, January 21 through April 15.

Power Your Business Or Personal Website With WordPress

This course focuses on how to build and manage a website using WordPress. I’ll teach you everything you need to know to setup the site, add and edit content, and how to use plugins and themes. This course is perfect for those building a website that needs to be updated often or from multiple locations. Again, you’ll need to have basic computer skills for this class or you’ll get lost.

This class meets once a week, on Thursday, April 22 through May 20.

Ecommerce (Online Shopping Carts)

This course focuses on helping those individuals or businesses who want to sell products online. Now, this will NOT cover eBay or other auction formats. It’s only for those who are wanting to sell from their own website. Again, basic computer skills are needed.

This class meets once a week, on Thursday, May 27 through June 24.

Secure Your WordPress Installation Now

I just spent several hours over the past two days updating and securing my WordPress installation. I also completely revamped one. (You can take a peek at my updated web design site, if you’re curious.)

While working on my own sites, I realized that many of you have WordPress installations that need to be updated as well. One of my own clients, had an issue with WordPress, which you can read about in the related posts section. I updated her site, and so far, no more issues.

Since security is such an important issue, and most business bloggers don’t think much about it, I decided to put together a list of to help you.

You can read my list of WordPress Security Tips at my Watersweb Solutions site.

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