All entries by this author

No images? Weird placement?

Aug 20th, 2008 | By Sites that Soar / Ais | Category: Design secrets, Updates, fixes, additions

NOTE: This post is out of date.  See more recent articles about images, including When homepage images don’t show up.

If your images aren’t showing up in the Custom Fields areas, here’s one reader’s solution:
Instead of entering something like this 2008/08/imagename.jpg in the Custom Fields area, use something that looks like this:
yourblog/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/yourimage.jpg
Please be very careful [...]



Selling multiple items at Clickbank

Jul 23rd, 2008 | By Sites that Soar / Ais | Category: Featured articles

The following is an article by Robert Plank, whose WordPress Search Engine Optimization article I recommend in my book. I’ve tried the following sales page technique and it works, if you’re selling multiple products through one Clickbank account.
Clickbank is a great third-party system for selling your products, but it’s not perfect. The most noticeable [...]



Page 41, second edition

Jul 14th, 2008 | By Sites that Soar / Ais | Category: Featured articles

Oops!  When I was writing the second edition of the book, I was working with an early copy of the first edition… and repeated a typo.  It’s on page 41.  Here’s a link to the replacement page:  Choose your right column articles.



New edition is online!

Jun 26th, 2008 | By Sites that Soar / Ais | Category: Featured articles

The new edition of Sites That Soar! is for users of WordPress 2.5.x and 2.6, and it’s online now!
This edition contains more than 70 pages. That’s nearly 1/3 larger than the previous book. It’s loaded with step-by-step instructions, screenshots, and cut-and-paste tweaks for your website.
It also contains lots & lots of links to [...]



WP 2.5 media upload issues

Jun 12th, 2008 | By Sites that Soar / Ais | Category: Products

If you’re having difficulties with Media uploads in WordPress 2.5.x, you’re not alone. The good news is, there are some good answers at the WordPress Support Forum. Start with this WP Forum post, which summarizes the most frequent bugs.
I’m using that post as a checklist right now. Yes, I’m having (minor) problems [...]



WordPress 2.5.1

Apr 25th, 2008 | By Sites that Soar / Ais | Category: Products, WordPress 2.5 fixes

There’s a new WordPress now, confirming my suspicions that the dust hasn’t settled on WP 2.5 yet. The new version, WP 2.5.1, includes one important security fix, and (according to the WordPress announcement) “over 70 other fixes.”
If you’ve already installed WordPress 2.5 — but only if you’ve already installed it — you may want to [...]



Breadcrumbs in WordPress

Apr 21st, 2008 | By Sites that Soar / Ais | Category: Products

Some website designers like to use “breadcrumbs.”
WHAT ARE BREADCRUMBS?
That term refers to the trail of breadcrumbs left by Hansel & Gretel, hoping to follow it back out of the woods if they became lost.
Online, “breadcrumbs” are a string of links showing your website visitor the previous pages (at your website) that he or she visited.
EXAMPLE
Let’s [...]



Revised version available today

Apr 21st, 2008 | By Sites that Soar / Ais | Category: Updates, fixes, additions

If you purchased Sites that Soar! before April 21st*, you have been sent a link to a free, updated copy of the book.
The only change in this edition is Page 29. On that page, you’ll see that “header.php” has been replaced with the correct file name, “index.php.” You’ll also see one quick fix [...]



Page 29 – typo alert

Apr 20th, 2008 | By Sites that Soar / Ais | Category: Updates, fixes, additions

There’s a typo in my book.  You need to know about it:
On page 29 of my book, it says:
1. Open the file called header.php in wp-content > themes > branfordmagazine
2. In your theme’s header.php, scroll down to see this code:
<div id=”rightcol”>
<?php
// enter the IDs of which categories you want to display
$display_categories = array(3,4,5,6);
The numbers 3,4,5,6 [...]



Category numbers in WP 2.5

Apr 19th, 2008 | By Sites that Soar / Ais | Category: Featured articles, WordPress 2.5 fixes

Can’t find your Category ID numbers in WordPress 2.5? Here’s help.
There are many reasons why I didn’t recommend WordPress 2.5… until now.  (Security issues make it imperative to upgrade to 2.5.1 immediately.)
One reason why I was hesitant about WP 2.5.x is Category ID numbers. You can’t see them as easily in WordPress 2.5, and [...]