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WordPress Site Management Best Practices – 5 Bad Habits to Avoid

In my experience as a WordPress developer and consultant, I have run across many users of WordPress who fall victim to some very bad habits. When consulting clients about WordPress site management, I’ve seen a lot, and I’ve fixed a lot.

Here are some of the most common bad habits that I’ve come across when it comes to WordPress site management. I’ll tell you what they are and how to fix them. Some of my comments might seem harsh, but consider it a dose of tough love. I’m trying to help you, not insult you.

If you are blogging for money or maintaining a professional brand image, don’t try to chintz on these. Bad habits will end up costing you more in both money and time. If you don’t know how to do some of these, it is prudent to either learn or to hire someone (even if that is just on a consulting basis). It will save you money in the long run! [Read more…]

New Video Site Released

By Chad Butler Leave a Comment

I always thought the Invasion Cinema site was pretty cool. They had some cool retro sci-fi movies and a blog with additional information. I even had the site in my delicious bookmarks and linked from here.

Awhile back, that site seems to have disappeared, so as an offshoot of a video testing project I had done, I decided to create a video site of my own. I tracked down the retro sci-fi movies that had been on Invasion Cinema’s site. This includes the following:

These movies are free and you can watch them on demand. I will also be adding content to include plot synopsis, cast information, and other information about the films.

While I am at it, I decided to add the classic Superman animated shorts from the 1940s. This series of animated shorts was done by Max Fleischer and I’ve always wanted to have a site with a “Superman Film Festival” flavor to it. The first film is up at http://video.butlerblog.com/2009/11/12/superman/ and I’ll be adding more later, until we have the entire series. You can view the entire “Superman Film Festival” here.

Google Trends: A valuable tool for webmasters and bloggers

By Chad Butler Leave a Comment

Google Labs does it again with their recent unveiling of Google Trends. Google Trends will give users the inside scoop on what search terms are hot, and how hot.

If you are a webmaster or blogger trying to increase your exposure, this type of information is key. You can see not only what terms the world is searching for, but what the trend of those search terms has been over time. Additionally, you can compare up to five different search terms to see how they compare in terms of trend.

Here is what Google says about the service:

With Google Trends, you can compare the world’s interest in your favorite topics. Enter up to five topics and see how often they’ve been searched for on Google over time. Google Trends also displays how frequently your topics have appeared in Google News stories, and which geographic regions have searched for them most often.

Here are some links for more information:

About Google Trends (includes FAQs)
Google Trends Discussion Group

And for something interesting, here is the Google Trends data on the terms “google trends.” Interestingly, when I looked at it, the “Hotness” was ranked as a mere “mild.” I would have expected more from a newly released data tool.

I’ll be looking forward to some type of API for this from Google Labs.