STOP SOPA / SOPA BLACKOUT

Posted: 17th January 2012 by q292u in DevBlog
Tags: ,

January 18th is STOP SOPA day.
This site will be participating in the SOPA blackout (18.1.2012)
The site will remain dark from 8am EST to 8pm.
For information on what this is all about, visit http://sopablackout.org/

We’re currently trialling OnlyWire to get posts automatically published on social media sites.
How it works:
1. Sign-up for an OnlyWire account.
2. Configure your website details
3. Configure your social media channels
4. Install and configure the “submitter” on your machine.

We’re using the RSS feed option, so OnlyWire reads the feedburner RSS feed, and creates posts from that.
As a result there’s (almost) no overhead on the website. It just sees an RSS client.

So every post is echoed on Digg, or wherever, and becomes a backlink to your site. RESULT!

We’re currently using the free trial version (restricted to 300 posts).

Sound good? Give it a go…

OnlyWire

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I manage a multi-site WordPress installation for a client.
Before Christmas, they installed an LDAP connector plugin, but never got around to configuring or testing it.
Unfortunately, the default settings prevented using the WordPress login as a fallback.
So everyone was locked out. So I tried the usual database>wp-settings>active-plugins workaround. There was nothing there!
So I tried the old faithful “rename the plugin folder” routine. Jackpot.
I was then able to get in.

Sorted.



STOP SOPA / SOPA BLACKOUT

Posted: 17th January 2012 by q292u in DevBlog, STOP SOPA
Comments Off

January 18th is STOP SOPA day.
All q292u sites will be participating in the SOPA blackout (18.1.2012)
Sites will remain dark from 8am EST to 8pm.
For information on what this is all about, visit http://sopablackout.org/



WordPress is immensely powerful straight out of the box, but it’s possible to add pretty much ANY functionality you want, and it’s usually for free.

This is a list of the TOP Plugins we use at q292u.com.
They are in no particular order.

AKISMET.
ESSENTIAL anti-spam system. Free to non-commercial users.
Filters out unwanted (spam) comments automatically, and provides stats on what it’s doing. ESSENTIAL.

FEEDBURNER FEEDSMITH.
Redirects all RSS feeds to your Feedburner feeds. So you can control all RSS activity. From there you can do e-mail Subscriptions and much more.
Including automatic TWITTER integration! Get a feedburner account. ESSENTIAL.

ALL-IN-ONE-SEO.
Handles ALL aspects of SEO (Search Engine Optimisation). Options to rewrite article titles, handles Keywords, meta tags, everything. There’s also a “PRO version. You won’t need it. ESSENTIAL.

ADROTATE.
Handles advertising on your site. Very comprehensive. Individual ads are created and then made into groups. You can then position the groups as widgets, in posts and on pages. Ads have start and end dates, and tracking can be switched on or off. Better than maxbannerads. STRONGLY RECOMMENDED

WPTOUCH.
Creates a mobile version of your site on the fly. All you need to do is access the site via a mobile device. The interface looks like Apple iOs.
Very smart. ESSENTIAL There’s a PRO version as well.

WP AUTO TAGGER.
Automatically adds relevant tags to your posts as you create them, based on post content. It’ll find tags you hadn’t thought of. STRONGLY RECOMMENDED.

WORDBAY.
Add relevant eBay listings to your posts and pages. This plugin is NOT free, but it’s worth the money. Simply set it up, and use shortcodes to position ads. Now includes a widget as well. RECOMMENDED.

FEEDWORDPRESS.
Automatically creates posts on your blog, based on predefined RSS feeds. Excellent. RECOMMENDED.

QUICKCACHE.
Excellent caching plugin, creates static version of all your posts and pages as they are created. Far better than SUPERCACHE.
ESSENTIAL if you use a lot of plugins, or have a lot of visitors.

EXCLUDE FROM NAVIGATION.
Some themes automatically add all pages to navigation menus. This is how to stop it. Adds a checkbox in the editor. ESSENTIAL.

GOOGLE XML SITEMAPS.
Automatically generates and submits sitemaps to Google. You can also submit these to Yahoo and Bing, yourself. Helps with SEO. ESSENTIAL.

WORDPRESS-DB-BACKUP.
Automatically create scheduled database backups and e-mail to yourself.
Simple and effective. ESSENTIAL.

SMART 404.
Attempts to redirect 404 errors to relevant pages based on search query, and URL requested. Reduces bounce-rates. ESSENTIAL

Mail From.
Simply changes the return e-mail address for automatically-generated e-mail messages to something like “NOREPLY@domain.com”. ESSENTIAL.

Google Analytics.
This adds Google Analytics tracking code to all your pages and posts, so you can keep tabs on everything. You need an analytics account. ESSENTIAL.

SIMPLE SOCIAL BOOKMARKS.
Adds social bookmark icons to your posts. Allows your readers to recommend your posts on DIGG, REDDIT, SLASHDOT, etc. STRONGLY RECOMMENDED.

CONTEXTUAL RELATED POSTS.
Adds links to other relevant posts on your site. Engages visitors, and keeps them on your site longer. STRONGLY RECOMMENDED.

GOOGLE +1 BUTTON.
The new kid on the block. Allows visitors to mark relevant posts, adds kudos and visibility on Google.

FACEBOOK LIKE BUTTON.
Allows visitors to “LIKE” your site on Facebook. Facebook is a massive audience, not to be ignored. STRONGLY RECOMMENDED.



One of our sites Supercars For Sale was displaying an error message:
Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in “..”/class-wp-admin-bar.php on line 342

This occurred after the 3.3 upgrade.

The problem is caused by the theme – in this case “elements of seo” having TWO calls to wp_footer (one direct call, and a do_action).

The solution was to remove the do_action call.

That’s it. Sorted.



WordPress 3.3 Upgrades Completed

Posted: 20th December 2011 by q292u in DevBlog
Tags: , , ,

Out of the final three (mission-critical) sites, two went through smoothly.
One did not, and had to be upgraded via FTP, then remove the .maintenance file.
Anyway, that’s it. All plugins updated, and all sites running on WordPress 3.3.

Give it a week, and there’ll be an urgent security fix, while everyone is off on their xm,as break..



We’ve started rolling-out WordPress 3.3 to our sites, starting with the less mission-critical.
Site#1 went almost smoothly (timed-out), but resumed ok.
Site#2 went smoothly.
Site#3 timed-out in the middle of something crucial and broke the site..
The solution was to delete the “.maintenance” file in the root directory, download WordPress 3.3, and then FTP the files up, and then run the upgrade procedure manually (just access site.com/wp-admin).
Site#4 was even worse – caused by SEO Ultimate plugin. Solved that by renaming the plugin folder, and ftping the files up, and running the upgrade manually.
Can’t wait to start with the three mission-critical sites. That’ll have to wait until we complete the office move. Did I mention that?
Sorted.



Old eBay RSS feeds died last night!

Posted: 23rd November 2011 by q292u in DevBlog
Tags: , ,

eBay appears to have (finally) pulled the plug on the old-style RSS feeds.
All our RSS feeds starting with “rss.ebay..” started generating errors last night.
We’ve now switched them all to the new “rest.ebay…” format.
Doesn’t seem to be any better.. but at least no errors..