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 about those forward slashes, especially at the beginning of the URL.

That should solve the graphics issue. If it doesn’t, start with the full URL of the graphic and start removing parts of it, one section at a time, until it works.

In other words, start with something like this:

http://www.yoursite.com/yourblog/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/yourimage.jpg

If that doesn’t work, try
www.yoursite.com/yourblog/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/yourimage.jpg

If that doesn’t work, try
/yourblog/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/yourimage.jpg

If that doesn’t work, try
yourblog/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/yourimage.jpg

… and so on.

IMAGE ALIGNMENT

Some images in the posts and pages seem to need extra help in the newest WP.

I’m tweaking them manually in the HTML version of the post. Yes, it’s annoying. I’m hoping that this will be resolved in future versions of WordPress.

Here’s what I’m doing: To the information within the <img src …> brackets, I add things such as

align=”left”
class=”left”
border=”0″

and so on.

LEAD IMAGE POSITIONING

One other person had difficulty with Custom Fields images lining up correctly in the Lead Image spot. That reader solved it by adding something like this code:

align=”left” hspace=”10″ vspace=”10″

Important: That goes in the ui.tabs.php file, in the code section related to the Lead Image.

WHEN YOU HAVE PROBLEMS SUCH AS THESE

Generally, these are specialized issues beyond what my book is intended to address.

Based on my email, the book works for 99% of readers, but there are exceptions related to MySQL and hosting service quirks.

Or, you could have an issue with the WP version you downloaded; new versions and tweaks are being added steadily. (The WordPress support forum is the best place to start, when you have a problem. It’s searchable, and a lot of people will usually chime in with advice.)

I do want to hear from readers, so I know which issues to address in future editions of my book.

However, if it’s a rare problem, I generally refer people to the guys who created Mimbo and Branford Magazine.

Try the Branford Magazine support forum: http://www.der-prinz.com/support-forum/

Or, contact Michael Oeser, the designer of Branford Magazine at support[at]der-prinz.com

In addition, Darren Hoyt provides a list of freelancers who can help with the components that are based on Mimbo:
http://www.darrenhoyt.com/referrals/

Note: HUGE thanks to Freddie of www.InvestWithPassion.com for advice on image solutions!

IMPORTANT

–> Still have an image problem?  In almost every case, this occurs ONLY with people who have installed WP in their root directory. That is, your WordPress homepage is in http://www.yoursite.com/ instead of http://yoursite.com/wordpress/

If you’ve installed your WordPress there and the above solutions aren’t helping, contact your hosting service before spending frustrating days trying to fix it yourself.

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 problem is that, even though you have the ability to offer up to 50 different products, you can only have one landing page.

This means that when an affiliate promotes your URL, you can only take the user to the sales page of a particular product. (Either that, or take them to a page with a link to every single product — bad idea — too many choices for the user to make.)

Luckily there is a PHP solution. Clickbank lets you add extra stuff to the URL, which can be passed to a PHP script. Then, this script can easy pass the user along to any page you like.

A typical Clickbank hoplink looks like this:

http://hop.clickbank.net/?AffiliateID/SellerID

Where “AffiliateID” is the ID of a Clickbank affiliate and “SellerID” is the ID of the seller whose product you are promoting.

I’ve recently been in a situation where I was selling an e-book, and wrote a second volume. I wanted to be able to offer an affiliate program to the following types of resellers:

1.) Those whose lists contained many people who already purchased Volume 1 from them as an affiliate, and were satisfied enough to buy Volume 2.

2.) Those who hadn’t bought either e-book before, and were willing to pay the full price for both Volumes 1 and 2.

3.) Those whose lists contained “freebie seekers” who would be more comfortable buying only Volume 1 for starters.

This meant I needed 3 sales pages, but I wasn’t comfortable with wasting another $100 to setup two new Clickbank accounts. I also didn’t want to have to login three different times to check all my stats. (And cash three separate checks, and so on.)

So, I gave affiliates a link like this:

http://hop.clickbank.net/?AffiliateID/SellerID&x=volume2

That extra part at the end said, set the query string variable called “x” to “volume2.” That “volume2″ can be any value you want, by the way.

When Clickbank does the redirect to your site, they pass along two things: the affiliate ID, and any stuff you add on to the end of that URL.

So, if your sales page was something like: http://www.example.com/index.php

Then Clickbank would send the user to: http://www.example.com/index.php?hop=AffiliateID&x=volume2

See what it does? It sets “hop” to the affiliate’s ID and then says that “x” is equal to “volume2.”

Here’s where it gets fun. Let’s create a new file in your text editor, like Notepad (this will actually be a PHP script). Copy and paste this in:

{{?php

$redirects = array(
“volume1″ => “http://www.example.com/volume1.html”,
“volume2″ => “http://www.example.com/volume2.html”,
“volume3″ => “http://www.example.com/volume3.html”,
“jv” => “http://www.example.com/special/index.html”
);

$x = $_GET["x"];

if (array_key_exists($x, $redirects)) {
$go = $redirects[$x];
header(“Location:$go”);
die();
}

?}}

* Don’t forget to change the {{ to the less-than sign (hold down SHIFT and press the comma key on your keyboard) and the }} to the greater-than sign (hold down SHIFT and press the period key on your keyboard.)

Change all those rows (volume1, volume2, etc.) and their URLs to your own URLs. They can be anything you want and you can have as many of them as you want. If you want more lines just copy the lines exactly as they are, but the last line doesn’t need a comma, as you can see above.

Save this file as something like “redirect.php,” and then change the extension from the landing page of your site to a PHP extension. For example if your landing page is “http://www.example.com/index.html”, it has to be changed to “http://www.example.com/index.php.” Change the URL in your Clickbank preferences if it needs to be updated to reflect this change.

Almost done. Now in your newly renamed landing page, add in this code:

{{?php include(“redirect.php”); ?}}

MAKE SURE that line is at the very very start of that page. You can’t have anything before it, not even a carriage return or a space. If you put that line of code anywhere than the top of your HTML document the redirect just won’t work.

* Don’t forget to change the {{ to the less-than sign (hold down SHIFT and press the comma key on your keyboard) and the }} to the greater-than sign (hold down SHIFT and press the period key on your keyboard.)

And there you have it. If that special code is added to the end, for volume3 or even the “jv” section, the user will be properly redirected. Or if no special code is entered at all (just a regular Clickbank hoplink) the landing page will just be shown normally without any sort of redirect.

You can now have more flexibility when giving out special offers. You can’t give JV partners a bigger commission (you’d need another Clickbank account for that), but you can:

• Offer a bunch of bonuses for JV partners.
• Have a different product link on that page where people can buy for a reduced price.
• Have a different product link where buyers are sent to a special signup form that shares their e-mail address with the referrer.

Now you can promote multiple products through Clickbank without multiple accounts, and without needlessly paying for a costly script that does very little.

Experienced PHP/JavaScript Tutor Solves 19 Of Your Most Frustrating Direct Response Sales Page Hang-Ups http://www.salespagetactics.com/

Note: The above article may be copied as long as the resource box is included. You may rebrand the above URL with your Clickbank ID however.

*Important note: Though I have to publish his article “as is”,  and his advice seems to be great, I do not recommend doing business with Robert Plank.

That’s not about his products, which seem to be excellent. It’s about how he treats his customers.

(He used my name on a testimonial for one of his products — and kept using it — long after I asked him to remove it.  The correspondence was not pleasant, and I wouldn’t want anyone else to go through that kind of ordeal.)

I’m using that post as a checklist right now. Yes, I’m having (minor) problems with one of my WordPress sites.

If you’re wondering why I included the image at the right: It was a test to see if my current problem was the image. An image that’s too large or flawed (garbled or missing image code) can cause difficulties.

That particular picture (Kilmallock Abbey, Kilmallock, Ireland) wouldn’t upload at another WordPress site that I manage. By testing it here, I can see that the image isn’t the problem.

In other words, if you have more than one WordPress installation running on the same server, you can rule out some problems by trying the same task in the other WP install.

(I’m about to overwrite my previous WP install, to see if one of my files was corrupted. You can always overwrite your files if you follow the extended steps that are recommended for upgrading WordPress.)

If you’ve already installed WordPress 2.5 — but only if you’ve already installed it — you may want to install 2.5.1 due to the security issue. That’s what I’m doing.

WordPress has a good, expanded list of instructions for an upgrade, but here’s my “cheat sheet” version. (I’m assuming that you backup your files — using Manage > Export — and your database, regularly.)

1. Deactivate all plugins.
2. Use FTP to delete the wp-admin and wp-includes folders.
3. Upload (with FTP) the new version’s wp-admin and wp-includes folders.
4. Upload (overwrite) all of the files (not the folders) in the main wordpress folder, except wp-config.php, of course.
5. Reactivate your plugins.

That’s it, though the WordPress site will talk you through some wp-content changes that may be necessary.

Also, I tried the new “secret key.” Be sure to add it to the correct location in your wp-config.php file, or you may have problems. In my wp-config.php file (generated by my hosting service during the installation), I added the secret key code as a new line immediately after where it says this:

define(‘DB_COLLATE’, ”);

If you add your own secret key code, use FTP to save the updated wp-config.php file (overwrite the old one) in your WordPress folder, and you should be all set. You will have to log in again, even if you were already logged in. But, in theory anyway, that’s all you’ll need to do.

On a more positive note, the “Add media” function seems to work better now. When I say that I want the graphic to go on the left, it really shows up there, aligned with the text. Life is good!

That said… I’m leaving most of my websites in WordPress 2.3.3 (the one illustrated in my book) until this new upgrade stabilizes. That’s when I’ll expand the Sites that Soar! book — or create a new, separate edition — with WP 2.5 illustrations and tips.

I doubt that I’ll change the book until June 2008 at the very soonest. A new version of 2.5 with this many changes… well, that suggests that there will be more changes in the immediate future.

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 say that your visitor arrived at your website featuring tin foil hats, and began reading an article, “Kinds of foil.”  From there, she read your article, “Alien technology,” and then, “Shielding your bedroom.”

The breadcrumb trail would look like this:

Kinds of tin foil > Alien technology > Shielding your bedroom

And, all of those would be links so your visitor could find her way back to re-read the first article, if she wanted to.

PLUGINS

As of April 2008, there is one WordPress plugin that’s recommended for creating breadcrumbs, called Breadcrumb NavXT.  Here’s the link: http://mtekk.weblogs.us/code/breadcrumb-navxt/

I haven’t tried it, but it’s already been updated through WordPress 2.5 (that’s a good sign) and I’ve heard some good things about it.

CAVEAT?

In most cases, if you try a plugin and it’s a disaster, you can simply disable it.

If a plugin causes WordPress to fail, freeze, or behave badly, just to into your FTP program and delete the plugin from your plugins folder.

Generally, you can’t go too far wrong with any plugin that is popular and updated regularly.

Breadcrumbs can help your website visitor find his or her way around your site.  Breadcrumbs may also improve your search engine rankings.

I’m not using this plugin on my sites (yet) because I rely on the Sitemap to help visitors navigate the site.

However, I may consider breadcrumbs for some of my more eclectic sites that can be confusing to a new visitor.

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 you’ll need those numbers for themes such as Branford Magazine and Mimbo.

(I still highly recommend the Branford Magazine theme, or the Mimbo theme, which provided much of the code for Branford Magazine’s basic design.)

Many of us are hoping that this WordPress issue will be fixed in the next WordPress upgrade. In the meantime, there are three ways to work around the problem: Rollover, click, or (as of late April 2008) with an Alpha plugin.

ROLLOVER

To find the Category number in WordPress 2.5, go to Manage > Categories. In that panel, roll your cursor over the category name for which you need an ID number.

The number will appear at the lower right corner of your screen.

Here’s an illustration:

In the example above, my “Design secrets” category’s ID number is 4.

Or, you can click on the category name to see the ID number.

CLICK

If you click on the category name as if you’re going to edit it, the category’s ID number will appear at the top of your screen, as a URL. The ID number is at the far right (end) of that URL.

Or, you can use a plugin that’s been released in April 2008, and — as of today (19 Apr 08) — is still in Alpha mode. (“Alpha” mode means that there may be significant bugs in this plugin, and you are taking a risk if you install it.)

PLUGIN

Oliver Schloebe has created a handy plugin to solve the problem. Though it is still in Alpha mode, I installed it and it worked fine for this website.

Important note: I do not intend to install this plugin at my larger websites until it is at least in Beta mode. If you install it and it causes problems with WordPress or your website, I cannot help you fix that.

The plugin is called Reveal IDs for WP Admin 2.5

Download, unzip, and upload/install it according to the instructions at that link.

Then, activate it in your Plugins tab.

Go to your Settings tab.

Uncheck everything on the list.

Save your changes.

Recheck the box that enables you to see the Category ID numbers. (As of 19 April, this part of the plugin is in Alpha mode.)

Save your changes.

Go to Manage > Categories and the ID numbers should show up to the right of your category names.

Here’s a screenshot of how it looks at this website:

As you can see, the ID number appears to the right of each category name.

TO FIND OUT MORE

To stay current on this issue, visit the WordPress Support forum for news. Search using words such as “category numbers 2.5″ and check the latest discussions about this problem.

Here’s one post about the issue: http://wordpress.org/support/topic/162394

Meanwhile, please do upgrade to the newest version of WordPress.  There are some huge security issues with the earlier versions.

First, let’s talk about the page background. That’s the color around the container where your content is.

On my Business of Art website (Arts-Careers.com), the background is dark grey. The arrow in this picture points to the area that I’m talking about.

Let’s say that I want to change that background color to green. It’d look like this, instead. (The red arrow points to the change I might like.)

To make that change, I’ll use any text editor (or simple HTML editor where I can write code) and open the file wp-content > themes > branfordmagazine > style.css

In that CSS file, look for the code for the body of the document. It looks like this:

That code, #333, indicates dark grey. (That’s the same as #333333, by the way. Since all the numbers are the same, all the way across, only the first three are necessary.)

Tip: In CSS, “background” is usually the background color. “Color” is usually the text color.

To make the background color a dark green (color #006633), I’d change the CSS to look like the following.

Then, I’d upload this edited file via FTP. After that, I’d look at my website and tweak the color (in style.css) until I was happy with it.

CONTAINER BACKGROUND CHANGES

But, let’s say that you want to change the background color for your container… where the content is. This can lead to many other changes, such as the header and so on, but the following will get you started.

The background color of the container is controlled by the style.css file as well. The following screenshot shows the part of the CSS code you’ll be changing.

That should help you customize the Branford Magazine theme to make your site look more unique.

Reminder: This is a good example of how I explain things — with screenshots — throughout my book, Sites that Soar! (If you don’t own a copy yet… get one now!)

If so, I recommend the WordPress plugin, AmazonSimpleAdmin.

The plugin homepage says that it only works with PHP 5, but I’ve had success on my sites that — according to my hosting service — are running PHP 4.3.4 with Zend Optimizer.

Also, if your book display is in German but you want English or French or another language, change the text to your preferred language in two files:  In the plugin folder, open the tpl folder.  In there, change the text in two documents: default.htm and book.htm.

Since my sites are in English, here’s how I changed part of the code.  My changes are in bold type.

ISBN: {$ISBN}</p>
<p><strong>Price:</strong> <span style=”color: #990000; font-weight: bold;”>{$AmazonCurrency} {$AmazonPrice}</span><br />
{$TotalOffers} copies starting at

The plugin seems to be working very nicely with my Amazon affiliate code (entered in Options > AmazonSimpleAdmin  or Settings > AmazonSimpleAdmin, depending upon which WP you’re using).

Here’s my summary.

• Low fees, starting at $5/month, total.
• They host your files for you.
• They auto-send your “thank you” emails with their own secure download links.
• PayPal, Clickbank, and other payment options for your customers.
• Available for your digital products as well as products you ship yourself.
• Monthly affiliate payments made easy with a one-click option at PayPal.
• Everything can be customized, or just use their default settings.

Seen enough?  Check it out yourself:  http://www.E-Junkie.com

I’ve used Clickbank, which seems pricey to me, and I still have to store my files myself.  Ick.

I’ve tried several other services with names I’ve forgotten… they all start with “pay…” something-or-other.  Yawn.  Not impressed, so far.

However…

I love E-Junkie. Really. I pay them a small fee based on how much storage space I’m using on their server. As of April 2008, I get 50MB for $5 per month.

That’s all they charge me. No commissions. No per-sale fees. Just $5 a month.

They even have a free trial, if you want to see how E-Junkie works.

[June 2009 update: I'm still at E-Junkie and still think they're the greatest.  My businesses have expanded, so I'm now paying $10 a month for 100 MB of space.  Truly, they make it easy to host large files for download, and manage a popular affiliate program.]

For that, they provide the payment links. They store my digital products. They provide secure download links. I can send out review copies of my products, for free, one-time download by reviewers. I can offer coupons, specials, and… well, a lot more.

My sales are paid directly to PayPal, as the products sell. I can check E-Junkie as often as I want, to see how much I’ve earned, and how much my affiliates have earned, too.

At the end of the month, E-Junkie provides me with a list of active affiliates and what their individual, past months’ commissions were. E-Junkie even makes it easy to pay my affiliates with a single click.

If you check E-Junkie’s list of clients, you’ll see many artists, crafters and non-profit organizations. It’s a great list.

I rave about E-Junkie for selling digital products. If you’ve been thinking of starting a business with digital products, MP3s, ebooks, etc., be sure to check E-Junkie. And, if you’re already in business but are tired of paying high fees and commissions elsewhere, E-Junkie is a logical choice.

Here’s the link: http://www.E-Junkie.com/

(Yes, that’s an affiliate link. They even pay you a commission if you refer customers to them… though I’d rave about them whether or not a commission was involved.)

The only way I can see it is if I open my WordPress admin panel in Internet Explorer.

It’s there, but this is another reason why I recommend not upgrading to WordPress 2.5 until issues like these have been resolved. (It’s April 2008 as I’m writing this, and if I hadn’t already installed it, I’d wait until at least June or July to upgrade to 2.5.)

While I’m writing about it, WP-Contact Form isn’t the perfect solution to the Expanded WP Content Form problems with WordPress 2.5. In addition to losing the spam deterrents, on some servers WP-Contact Form broke the ‘Add media’ upload images function.

To upload images if you’re facing this problem, deactivate WP-Contact Form in your Plugins panel. Upload your images. Reactivate WP-Contact Form. (Generally, your preferences will still be there when it’s reactivated, but double-check to be sure.)