Blog Maintenance and WordPress upgrade
I finally upgraded to WordPress 2.7.1 with the help of John Hoff at WpBlogHost, a web hosting company dedicated to blogging.
The last time I tried to do this myself, it was a disaster. Within hours John had completed the upgrade and added additional security features to my blog. For a very reasonable investment I received quite an extensive, and clearly outlined explanation of what steps he had taken for both the WordPress upgrade and the Security upgrade.
He completed a full backup of my blog and stored it outside the www directory. He educated me about the possible risks that plug-ins can pose when they are easily accessible for hackers to use as leverage to access a site. Now my plug-in directory is only seen by myself.
John told me that hackers aren’t always looking to change your password or disable your site. Many of them are looking to use your website and insert code so they can steal your bandwidth and create dozens (if not hundreds) of microscopic backlinks to their sites.
I invested in more than just an upgrade, I gained knowledge and peace of mind. Blogging is an investment well worth protecting and I would recommend John’s service to anyone who wants expert support with their blog maintenance.
Customizing Thesis
I launched this blog last December after moving from Loving Pulse, another personal development blog. After choosing Thesis for the theme I wanted to customize it and try to make it different than all the other blogs using Thesis. Well, it still looks pretty similar, but I recently chose to remove the rotating images to gain more space above the fold.
I found a wonderful video to the tune of What A Wonderful World, by Louis Armstrong and posted it in the sidebar. If you haven’t watched it yet you don’t know what you’re missing. I’ll leave it up for another month so if you have 2 minutes and 17 seconds to spare, check it out.
As for customizing Thesis, I had help from Robin at Let’s Live Forever!. This happened a few months ago and I think it’s about time I gave her the credit and said thanks Robin!
With Robin living in Australia and I in western Canada we managed this easily with Skype. She guided me through the steps to change the mouseover colour of the title to red, as well as the content in the sidebars, and the post titles. We tried to change the background to red too, but I was unable to get it to work.
By accident, I came across some code online and was able to change the look of the navigation menu — I was quite proud of myself. In the future I plan to have a customized header designed. But for now, I’m satisfied.
My niche as a blogger is me
The tagline has changed about three times, and it will probably change again.
As most of you know, I am a life coach and an editor. I run Crimson Compass Life Coaching and Writer Sense Communications.
When I moved from Loving Pulse to Shades Of Crimson, I aspired to write from the perspective of a life coach to promote the business.
However, I blog to share about my experiences and the perspectives I have gained. I prefer to be personal when blogging on Shades Of Crimson, not professional.
To promote my business I will write articles to be submitted in other online arenas. Oh, I’ll still mention coaching in some of my posts because it continues evolving into my life, but for now Shades Of Crimson is my personal personal development blog.
What have you done for your blog lately?
What are your plans for the future?
Photo credit: Chucks
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{ 21 comments }
Thanks for the mention, Davina! Talking to you with Skype was fun – I enjoy fiddling with websites (one day I’ll stop fiddling with mine so much and actually write more). To answer your question, I’m thinking of starting a newsletter. Why I would want to load myself up with more things to do, I can’t imagine – except I am intrigued by having a newsletter.
John’s service sounds great – a scary thing about blogs is that you don’t store them on your own computer like you do websites – if our website got wrecked, I could just put it up somewhere else.
Happy Easter!
Robin’s last blog post..Calling All Gods And Goddesses!
Hi Davina,
I’m listening to the video as I type this. That is an awesome song. It’s so uplifting.
I love what you did with your site, and with John’s help, you’re now secure.
As you know I just changed mine, but someday I’d love to create a theme all by myself, coding and all. I love that behind the scenes stuff as I find it so rewarding.
That’s so cool you got Robin’s help via Skype. I’m guessing you gals had lots of laughs. :)
Barbara Swafford’s last blog post..Give Your Readers What They Want
I’m always tweeking my site. I just played with the color on the background. I wanted something that would reflect my subject matter. So, my thinking was blue for the ocean and sky.
So far, I’ve gotten good feedback on the changes. Sometimes, I feel I’m too close to it, so it’s great to get thoughts and ideas from others.
I like your clean white design.
LisaNewton’s last blog post..Sun and Fun at the Santa Monica Pier
hi Davina,
I enjoyed this post very much, and am happy that you are keeping this as your personal personal development blog. Lovely idea! I like the new look too, and you’ve got me thinking about security now. I minimise plugins because of loading speed, but never thought about the security issue much.
Not sure if you know that I’m constantly changing the theme and therefore appearance of my blog. Did it again two days ago. I love so many themes and enjoy tweaking them to get them to look exactly as I want. I spend more time playing with themes than I do writing! I didn’t realise that others like Robin and Barbara enjoy it too! Good to know I’m not alone.
I’ve just started a new blog that I will launch soon. That’s my latest project – another chance to try a new theme, and a totally new idea!
Daphne’s last blog post..Who Is Your Ideal Reader?
Good to hear you are up and running with your blog. Upgrades are pain. I hardly keep myself calm when I invest my time in some technical stuff that might have been avoided in first place.
Alik Levin | PracticeThis.com’s last blog post..Want To Win? – Argue, Do Not Fight!
Hi Robin.
Oh, you’re welcome! It was great to chat with you. I was thrilled to be listening to the birds in Australia and see your sun shining :-) A newsletter, now that is something else to tackle — follow that intrigue and see what’s round that corner. Happy Easter to you too Robin.
Hi Barbara.
I love that song too. Glad you’re enjoying it. I like what you’ve done with your blog and I bet you learned a lot through that process — enough to get you into trouble with doing some coding right? Yes it was fun to talk to Robin on Skype. I’ve always wanted to go to Australia and that’s the closest I’ve been so far.
Hi Lisa.
Welcome to my second home, lol and thanks for your comment. I like the colour blue you’ve chosen for your site, and the white space makes everything stand out. Your blog has got that clean, uncluttered look
Hi Daphne.
Thank you. I know, I didn’t even realize that plug-ins could be a problem until I chatted with John. I have noticed you keep tweaking your theme. I like your latest version the best. I wish I knew more about coding so I could work with mine — someday. I’m curious about your newest blog now. I bet you’re getting excited to unveil it :-)
Hi Alik.
Oh, I know what you mean! I remember the gold old days before moving to a self-hosted blog. What was that word you used??? Oh yes… calm.
Very cool. And I like even professional sites to throw in the personal touch. That’s what keeps me coming back.
As you know, I moved to Wordpress as well, and did a complete redesign. Well, *I* did not do the redesign. I have zero interest in that, although if I had the time, I am more than capable of figuring it out.
A friend did all the design and groundwork, for the price of a really good bottle of wine, because he wanted to learn how to do it. I had MenWithPens design the banner, and tweak the site to make it run smooth as silk. WELL WORTH THE INVESTMENT!
The future for my blog? To add an e-transaction page to sell a book of short stories in the Fall.
Urban Panther’s last blog post..Rain
Davina, every moment, one comes across different sources of inspiration. Everything you do is groundwork for something new and unforeseen. You do not necessarily know where current thoughts are leading. Its all good.
Liara Covert’s last blog post..10 Ways to respect every moment
Hi I’m a bit of a technological dummy, but in the short time that I’ve been blogging I’ve learned a lot and do enjoy playing around tweeking my blog.
There’s always something to learn and somehow I doubt that I’ll learn it all.
I learnt something here today though…. I had never really considered plugins security!
thank you & best wishes Ribbon
Ribbon’s last blog post..Six Word Saturday… x 3
it can be fun to play around with your blog, usually i keep a test blog before i do anything on my main blog, just to be sure things will work before i go live with the changes.
the only other plans i have for my blog is to upgrade to 2.7.1. i was waiting on my hosting company to update their scripts, but i can do it myself. by the time you get one upgrade done they are already working on the next one. 2.8 is coming.
Natural’s last blog post..My Two Left Feet
Hi Urban Panther.
I’ve seen your new design and it is fabulous! And I’ve heard that you are working on a book of short stories. If these stories are anything like your Fiction Fridays, they will be a hit. You have a real talent for storytelling.
Hi Liara.
I love your comment — thank you. There is an air of mystery in your words. You inspire me to stay curious.
Hi Ribbon.
It is surprising how much we learn on this blogging journey. Things are changing so fast it is hard to keep up, even for the best of us. I hear that the next WordPress upgrade is on its way already. I’m just like you… technologically challenged. I’m glad you found this information about plugins helpful.
Hi Natural.
I’ve heard that it is a good idea to keep a test blog. That is still something I haven’t done. You sound like a tekkie — updating your scripts Show off! :-)
Love this part – My niche as a blogger is me.
So very true and so very unique.
And congrats on getting everything updated to as you want it!
Barbara
Barbara Ling, Virtual Coach’s last blog post..Easy way to boost your optin subscriber rate
Hi Davina. Sorry I’m late to the conversation. Took the family on a vacation to Disneyland and spent a week in California.
Thank you so much for such a wonderful mention. I am honored to be highlighted on your blog.
I’ve noticed some conversations about security when it comes to plugins. This is absolutely an issue. Remember, you don’t know who coded those plugins. They might of left a bunch security holes in the code. About a month ago my Firewall detected and notified me when an intruder tried to get into our blog through an AdSense plugin.
We don’t run that plugin, the person just took a stab at it. That tells me that plugin has or had a security hole.
Anyway, thanks again for the reference and it was an absolute pleasure working with you.
And yes, a new header from MwP would really add to your theme. Well worth the investment.
@ Natural –
. . . tell me about it ;)
John Hoff – WpBlogHost’s last blog post..The 1st SEO Decision You Should Make To Rank Well In Google
Hi Davina
Thank you for the insight on wordpress, you reminded us to take a moment to do our blog up keep. And I really like what you said about: “My niche as a blogger is me.” Well said…I feel the same way.
Thank you for sharing. Happy Easter!
Giovanna Garcia
Imperfect Action is better than No Action
Giovanna Garcia’s last blog post..What can you learn from the Easter Bunny!
Hmm… installing own blog/scripts sometimes can get tricky. So I choosed blogger than wordpress. It’s good to know Google handles the upgrade and security. Well, it’s good to know your blog is running well. :)
Hearing about those hackers makes me think I really need to go the route you did with your blog.
My Wordpress professional is Kim Woodbridge of (Ant)i Social Development.
I’m not sure what else my blog needs but I should look into the possiblities closer.
Jannie Funster’s last blog post..Trio
Hi Barbara.
Thank you. And, thanks for the tweet too :-)
Hi John.
You’re welcome. Gee that’s too bad you were in California :-) Sounds like a good trip to me — good for you and your family. It’s my pleasure to give mention to WpBlogHost. I was grateful for your support, and glad to learn about the issues with plugins.
Hi Giovanna.
Happy Easter to you too. I know… blog upkeep… don’t ya love it?
Hi Avatar.
Welcome and thanks for sharing. I’m not familiar with Blogger but I did have a WordPress.com blog when I first started. It was a lot easier because, as you say, the updates are taken care of when you’re not running a self-hosted blog.
I like the look of your blog and I look forward to reading more.
Hi Jannie.
I know Kim. She shares a lot of good information on her blog. It’s good to know we have so many sources to turn to for help. I think you’re in good hands. Too bad for the hackers.
Thanks for this post. You know, it sounds simple, but an important thing I did for my blog lately was to change the color of the “first container” from black to blue. The black color, I recognized, may be driving visitors away with scary images of the void and black holes and whatever. :)
Hi Chris.
You’re welcome. Your blog has a nice clean look. Black can work for some blogs. Colourful “punchy” graphics will hold their own space in the black mystery.
I’m thinking of using the Wordpress Shopp Plugin to combine my web store with my blog. I will have to keep looking into it and reading reviews before making that kind of change though. Maybe early in the summer…
Carla’s last blog post..Giveaway: Skinny Skinny Organic Soap and Body Oils
Hi Carla.
You are being very patient with this. I admire that. Taking the time to do the research and make an informed decision is very smart.
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