Category Archives: Articles

Enhanced Commenting on WordPress with IntenseDebate

Introduction Comments are one of the basic mechanisms for interacting with others (yes there are more) on your blog/website. WordPress comes ready out-of-the-box with a basic commenting system but there are options to extend it’s behavior with extended commenting systems that provided added values both to you (the blogger) and to your visitors. I know [...]

Adding Audio Files to WordPress

On my personal website I occasionaly publish audio recordings in a default MP3 file format. Over recent years as I have shifted to an Ubuntu based open-source environment I have also shifted towards the "OGG" file format to replace "MP3". I finally did some research into this and I came across two great plugins which provided me with an option to include a player for OGG sound files.

Displaying Flat Hierarchies in WordPress

Two projects (one recently completed and one just getting started) have presented a need to display hierarchical set of terms in a "flat" presentation. In both applications I am using a WordPress custom taxonomy to show hierarchical location information. But WordPress doesn't have readily accessible functions for displaying hierarchically-sorted information. The default (and commonly used) sort order is alphabetical. Therefore the result would vary depending on the actual names.

A Business Lesson: Not Blogging

If you believe that an online-presence can be of service to your business then start nurturing it now and find a healthy pace to keep nurturing it. Unlike many other business practices in which actions and metrics create a sense of understanding and control - an online presence is about tapping into something more dynamic and unknown. It's not something you can bend to your will when you think the time is right. The right time is usually now when you can't identify the benefits rather then later when you think you do.

Don’t “Utilize” Social Media – Participate

It isn't uncommon for businesses to want to utilize social media as a marketing tool. But as a business you need to realize that people aren't likely to want to socialize with you - so it's up to you to do the socializing. But be warned, if you "socialize" with the intent of marketing - that really isn't socializing and people will spot you and call you out very quickly.

Make Time for Writing

If you are running a business then you are probably busy - very busy. If you've added to your business a new website with a blog then you probably don't have much time (because you are busy) or motivation (because you don't yet see how your business can benefit from blogging) to write. What to do?

Blog for Yourself

Though publishing online is relatively easy to do (thanks to WordPress, affordable Linux-based hosting, search engine traffic, etc.) - reaching people remains a formidable challenge. Attempting to satisfy the craving for "reach" is a slippery slope that can quickly lead away from flowing, honest & purpose-filled writing to burdensome, superficial & manipulative writing.

Panel Discussion: Blogging for Your Business

An informative panel discussion from a recent WordCamp was recently published on WordPress.TV. Highlights from the discussion: be found online, direct contact with audiences, answer questions, share your passions, connect, be genuine.

Curating Content

Curating online content, in it's most basic form, is about sharing with others things that interest you. When you come across an article or post that you like you can share your finding with your community of readers on your own website or through other social media tools.

Blogs are Good for Business

The fact is that web sites with a blog received 55% more visitors, 97% more inbound links and 434% more indexed pages than those that didn’t have a blog. Businesses in particular can capitalize on this because businesses that blog experience 126% higher lead growth than non-blogging businesses. Can you really afford to miss this opportunity?