First time Blogging – Revision Update

 blogging, plugins, tutorial, Wordpress  8 Responses »
May 152012
 
first-time-blogging-revision-update

Donate for a cup of coffee :)


If you are blogging for the first time then this tutorial will help you.

Revision Update: Added two new plugin on Step 7 one of the plugin is about security

My host is Justhost, although some of the most common Host that work very well with WordPress are Bluehost, Hostgator. Bluehost is at the top of the list of host that wordpress.org recommends.

I am currently using the latest version of WordPress 3.3.2.

WordPress in my opinion is the simplest CMS “Content Management System” most widely used blogging platform in the world.

In this tutorial you are going to learn how to create a blog for the first time following these instructions. The more blogs you create, the better you will become. The more you use wordpress the more you will get to love it like I do. Experience will give you knowledge and the ability to develop very powerful blogs and in return you will become popular as a blogger. This is a learning curve and I am sure that you will enjoy it very much. That is why you are here reading this tutorial.

The following list applies to this blog and it is the same instructions I follow to develop my other blogs and websites.

The steps to follow:

  1. Think of a domain name
  2. Sign up with just host and register a domain name
  3. Install WordPress
  4. Setup your theme
  5. Add Categories
  6. Change permalinks structure
  7. Install plugins
  8. Create a Twitter account, a Facebook Page, and a Feedburner account
  9. Add links to these accounts on your sidebar
  10. Start adding some post
  11. SEO “Search Engine Optimisation”
  12. Change your privacy settings
  13. Backup, Maintenance and Security

#1 Think of a domain name

Buying a domain name using the correct keywords can be tricky at first but if you do it right from the beginning it can take you to the top in Google search and in time be ranked top 10. If you build the right foundations from the beginning using the correct keywords in your domain name people will find you much quicker.

Let me give you an example. Lets say you wanted to sell tomatoes at a special price and your name was Bob, the domain names that I would consider might be:

  1. www.bobstomatoes.com
  2. www.bobsspecialtomatoes.com
  3. www.specialbobtomatoes.com
  4. www.specialtomatoes.com

The above would be based on a search on Google and see how many searches come up with the words bob special tomatoes or any other combination. The results was astonishing 13,800,000 which tells you that you have a huge competition ahead based on that particular search query. This would mean that you might reconsider selecting another domain name to make life easier.

These are just examples, I think you are starting to get the message and remember that if you live for example in Spain then you might consider adding the .es domain especially if you only sell in Spain.

Web browsers

 Browsers, plugins, security  1 Response »
May 062012
 
web-browsers

There are many web browsers out on the market, so which one should you install? Which one should you use? In all my years in IT I still prefer Firefox. I know that many might differ from my opinion however if you feel that using your current web browser helps you and makes your life easy then stick with it. No need to change if it is working for you. I have added my list of favorite browsers in numerical order, number 1 being the highest on my list and number 5 being the last on my list.

I have added IE and that is because after they released version 9+, it started to work great. This opinion on IE is purely from a web developer’s point of view even though there are a few minor issues that are occurring in web developing in the latest version IE 9 and 10. 

To download the current version of the following browsers and other popular browsers click on filehippo. Filehippo will show you other browsers that might interest you to download and test, it also has many other utilities, tools, programs and software that might also interest you.

The latest version will be highlighted in RED.

My preferred browser list:

  1. FireFox:
    • Is a very powerful browser constantly being updated. Firefox is widely used in web developing and is one of the preferred browser for web developers. It has an excellent security setup and you can add many plugin to make even more powerful and design the cosmetic layout….Latest Version 12.0
      • Latest beta version Firefox 13.2
  2. SeaMonkey:
    • The SeaMonkey project is a community effort to develop the SeaMonkey all-in-one internet application suite (see below). Such a software suite was previously made popular by Netscape and Mozilla, and the SeaMonkey project continues to develop and deliver high-quality updates to this concept. Containing an Internet browser, email & newsgroup client with an included web feed reader, HTML editor, IRC chat and web development tools, SeaMonkey is sure to appeal to advanced users, web developers and corporate users. l…Latest Version 2.8
      • Latest beta version SeaMonkey 2.9 beta 1
  3. Chrome:
    • Is a powerful fast and versatile browser that loads very fast and runs flash and youtube files very fast. A browser widely used by those who love watching youtube clips online…..Latest dev Version 20.0.1123.4
  4. Safari:
    • Innovative new features from this browser improve the way you view the web. Mac has a reputation like no other on the net. You will enjoy the browsing experience……..Latest Version 5.1.5
  5. Opera:
    • Lighting fast, secure and versatile browser. It has many smart features that makes it one of the favorite browser by many who use it……Latest Version 11.61
  6. IE: Internet Explorer as we know it is one of the most popular browsers in the market. The great way that Microsoft has market their product i.e. Windows which includes IE has control the market for many years.

The flexibility, the performance and the security that Firefox provides helps me feel safe and secure especially when I do my internet banking. The list of add-ons that you can install is very long and incredibly helpful, no wonder why so many from the IT world love it so much. If you need to know what are some of the best add-ons you can install click on the following link https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/featured and you will see the wealth of add-ons.

I am sure that you will find one that you really love ;) .

Hint: Always delete the cache on any browser to eliminate issues that might arise while browsing, including malware, adware, cookies and other stability issues that might show up from time to time. A very good utility for this is ccleaner found in filehippo’s website mentioned above or simply clear the cache using the browsers deleting tool.

I will be updating this post from time to time, so come back for more information :)

Backup and Restore WordPress Using BackWPup plugin

 blogging, plugins, tutorial, Wordpress  No Responses »
May 032012
 
backup-and-restore-wordpress-using-backwpup-plugin

Donate for a cup of coffee :)

Latest news: Added a wordpress link that explains how to move wordpress to a different directory

This simple tutorial will guide you and help you to create a WordPress backup and restore your WordPress website using BackWpup plugin on the same server.

Just to let you know after I created the backup I deleted all the website files on my server to test this plugin.

First you need to download and install the BackWPup plugin.

Hint: Click on an image to see a larger size.

1) Create a job and select what you want to include in the backup from the many options. See image below:

 Create a job using Backwpup plugin

2) Make sure that you enter the backup path or else you will receive an error. See image below:

Hint: Make sure your backup folder is protected. To secure the folder you can add an index.html file or add a .htaccess file on the backup folder.

 Enter the path to backup using Backwpup plugin

3) Once the job has been created then you need to run the job to create the backup. See image below:

 Run job using Backwpup plugin

4) If everything goes well then you should receive a completed message. See image below:

 Job completed using Backwpup plugin

5) Once you have created the backup, you can download a copy locally to your computer. See image below:

Hint: It is always better to use FTP to download or upload files.

Option: Keep a copy of the backup zipped file on your server if you have space.

 Donwload file using Backwpup plugin

That is how simple it is to create a backup.

How to Restore a Full Backup to the same Server

You need to upload the content of the zip file you downloaded on step 5) to the server or if you kept the file on the server go to step 6).

Unzip all the files locally on your computer and upload them using ftp software like FileZilla, which is FREE. All the files must be uploaded to the same path as your website unless you choose to upload the files to a different folder and then copy them to the website path. The path will look similar as illustrated on the following examples below:

Examples:

/home/user/public_html

/home/user/www

/public_html/
(depending on your host).

6) Select the file on the server to extract. See image below:

Select the file to extract

7) Extract the file to the correct path of your website. See image below:

Example: My path is /plublic_html/myurl/wptest/ this is a sub domain

Extracted the files to the correct path

Voila the site was up and running in a few minutes. I did some test on the site by login into the admin page and had a look around and yes everything was working well. Very simple and quick. The BackWPup plugin works well and I highly recommend it.

How to Restore only the Database

You need to upload the database you backed up to the root of your website.

Hint: Make sure the database is Unzipped.

8) Log into the website as admin. Locate tools on the left hand side and restore your database. See image below:

Hint: Delete the database after you have restored it successfully.

BackWPup tools to restore the database

Moving WordPress to a different directory

Please remember the information in this tutorial relates to backing up and restoring to the same server.

I did not add any new information here because WordPress has a great tutorial on moving your WordPress to another directory. Click on the following link moving wordpress to a it’s own directory.

I will be adding more information in the near future. If you have any questions please leave a message.

Good luck :)

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