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31 Days to Build a Better Blog Redux

By Chad Butler Leave a Comment

31 Days to Build a Better Blog Redux

I have reviewed Darren Rowse’s 31Days to Build a Better Blog (31DBBB) ebook before, but it is such a great resource, I am doing it again.  If you are looking for ways to better your blog, to increase your readership, this is a resource you need to have.  This is a dense resource full of material that remains relevant to today’s blogging.

Bloggers with an existing blog and perhaps an existing audience will be the ones to most benefit from this resource; improving your existing blog.  But that doesn’t mean you must fit that mold.  If you are just starting up, this will help get you started on the right track.  And for beginners and experienced bloggers alike, Darren also has Problogger’s Guide to Your First Week of Blogging – which I also own a copy of, and may review in the future.  But getting back to the point…

A Well Defined Plan

This resource is full of good ideas to improve your writing, your traffic, and your readership.  It is so dense, you might be tempted to skip around and try different things right away.  I would encourage you to follow the outline of the book, which is outlined with material and exercises for each day – Day 1, Day 2, etc. for 31 days.

You will experience the best results if you follow the days as outlined with consistency.  Don’t jump around, and don’t skip days.  Commit to following the structure day by day.  That will return the best results.

An Ongoing Resource

You will find yourself returning to it later as a resource.  I personally have found that every once in awhile it makes sense to go through it again and it always gives me some new ideas.

Here is another usage suggestion:  instead of just reading the PDF, print it out.  I keep a printout with a binder clip that I have written copious notes in.  I come back to this in time and will add new notes, update old ones, maybe make new highlights.  It is an ongoing resource.

About Recommendations

In the spirit of full disclosure, I receive a referral fee when you purchase this book via my affiliate link.  I am not writing this post simply to generate affiliate income.  I truly believe this is a fantastic resource and that you will benefit from it (if indeed you are looking for success as a blogger).

There have been products that have been listed on this site before that I have removed because after testing and receiving feedback from readers, they did not turn out to do what was advertised (or didn’t do it well).  That is not the case with this book.  In fact, I purchased the original 31DBBB book even after seeing Darren’s posts from which it was developed.  Then, when he released a new updated edition, I upgraded (albeit at a discounted price offered presale for previous edition owners).

So, I have no problem saying that I personally recommend this book.  Whenever someone tells me they want to improve their blog or they are thinking of blogging, I recommend this resource.

Click here to visit ProBlogger and get the book

Get 31 Days to Build a Better Blog

Get 31 Days to Build a Better Blog

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Filed Under: Blogging Tips Tagged With: blogging, Reviews, tips

Site Review: Digging Into WordPress

By Chad Butler Leave a Comment

Site Review: Digging Into WordPress

Digging Into WordPress (DigWP.com) is a great site and resource for WordPress powerusers, theme developers, and plugin developers.  This is a blog by Chris Coyier and Jeff Starr that focuses on the finer points of fine tuning your use of WordPress with excellent (and well documented) tips and code snippets.

Both Chris and Jeff are WordPress veterans with several sites under their direct tutelage.  They both have been involved with WordPress as long as I have, taking us all the way back to 2005 (which seems like a long time ago).

Digging Into WordPress is set up to be full of useful information about tuning your WordPress site – code snippets, how-tos, widgets, design, and more.  It also serves to promote their book Digging Into WordPress.

10574-1259010890I personally own a copy of the book and I heartily recommend it for your library.  You can get a print version (currently sold out) or a PDF version.  The print version includes a copy of the PDF version, and both versions include lifetime updates – very nice plus.  You also get access to a few other extras including some exclusive themes.

The site is loaded with how-tos and code snippets, and both Chris and Jeff operate under a similar school of thought as I do, which includes the following:

  • Less is more
  • Do it the right way
  • Don’t do it with a bulky plugin when roll-your-own will be a better fit

A favorite post of mine is their tutorial on how to make WP’s Visual Editor actually WYSIWYG.  If you freelance and you do this for a client site, I guarantee they will be amazed!  Especially if they are already using WordPress.

If you want a good overview of their best articles, take a look at their Best of DigWP.com.  This has a list of their top posts for the last few years and should give you a good idea of what you can find on DigWP.com.

Whether you are looking to improve your self hosted WordPress site or you are a WordPress developer, there is going to be some good material for you on DigWP.com.  Check them out.

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Filed Under: Site Reviews Tagged With: Reviews, sites, webdev, WordPress

Plugin Review: User Switching

By Chad Butler Leave a Comment

If you are a WordPress developer of either themes or plugins, or you are running/building a membership site with something like WP-Members, then you may find yourself logging in and out of your test site a lot.  In building WP-Members, I find myself doing this constantly to test the plugin with different user accounts.

The User Switching plugin has made my life easier in this area, and if you are a developer, I think you’ll find it incredibly useful as well.  It is also handy for site admins that might be testing features of their site and might need to be logging in and out of various test accounts.

About The Plugin

As I mentioned, the plugin allows you to switch user accounts, and you can do this all from the WP Users screen.  The plugin was developed and is maintained by John Blackbourn, WordPress specialist at Code For The People.

This is a free plugin maintained in the wordpress.org repository.

Analysis

The first concern with any plugin that deals with user accounts is of course going to be security.  I was impressed with John’s attention to detail in this area, including use of WP nonces.  This is from the plugin description:

  • Only users with the ability to edit other users can switch user accounts (by default this is only Administrators on single site installs, and Super Admins on Multisite installs). Lower level users cannot switch accounts.
  • User switching is protected with WordPress’ nonce security system, meaning only those who intend to switch users can switch.
  • Full support for administration over SSL (if applicable).
  • Passwords are not (and cialis online cannot be) revealed

The plugin is essentially one single file.  There is not a lot to it in terms of code.  This does have the downside of needing to load with all WordPress plugins.  Personally, I would like to see a two file system, the first testing to see if the user has user editing capability (required for the plugin’s security) and if so, go ahead and load the class file for user switching.

Even without that, it is a very lightweight plugin and uses proper security controls, so it could be used on a production site, but I would recommend limiting its use to staging sites and if used on a production site, definitely limit its use to only active when needed.

The plugin supports WP standard installs, but also Multisite and BuddyPress (and WP-Members!).

Critical when considering a plugin is support.  John is active on the wordpress.org forum, so support issues are addressed in a timely manner.  This also tells you that the plugin is  continuing to be maintained.  The plugin’s most recent update just last month and it has ongoing downloads, 81,397 as I write this.  The ratings are impressively high with 79 5 star ratings and only 1 each 4 and 3 star.  The non-5 star ratings were before the new wordpress.org review system, so we don’t know the reason for that, but clearly those individuals were out of touch.  This is a 5 star plugin.

Status

Definitely Recommended!

Where To Find It

Get it in the WordPress Plugin Respository:

http://wordpress.org/plugins/user-switching/

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Filed Under: Plugin Reviews Tagged With: development, plugins, Reviews, tools, WordPress

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