Below are my posts for my Technology Education Category in chronological order in order to educate in a step by step manner.If you read from the beginning till the end hopefully you will learn from the wisdom that I share with you.
FYI, this is done by:
“<?php query_posts(’cat=21&order=ASC&posts_per_page=40′);?>” and using the Exec-PHP Plugin.
My “Technology Education” category will be a learning tool for my friends, who are not the most technology savvy people, even though they use E-mail and 
Facebook, MySpace and know the innards of many web sites, they do not know what I know about Blogs, RSS Feeds, Wordpress, Website Design, Domain Names, Hosting your own site, FTP sites, DIVX, etc.
This will be where I teach my friends and fellow and new blog readers how to do what I can do. I hope you enjoy and most importantly, LEARN.
Ever want to keep current on the newest information or news on topics you read about? The New York Times, Yahoo News, Magazines, Newspapers, Companies, Product Reviews all utilize feeds to make life EASIER for you.
There is an obvious way to recognize a web site that has a feed in most Browsers… the universal logo is 
. This can be found in several spots on different browsers and once clicked displays the feed. Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari all have it and incorporate ways to read the feed in the browser.
Now after clicking on the Feed Icon, you now have several options. (I will take about the Browser options and continue in another post about “RSS Feed Readers” and which options you have). The basic term is that you “Subscribe” to the feed.
This is what you see:
Options of where to save:
In Firefox, Live Bookmarks ads current Feed Topics into a Bookmarks Folder.
When Subscribed it will appear in your toolbar (near the “Favorites Star”), I personally used this option for several months.
)Only place to save it is bookmark it… (booo!)
However, FeedBurner, recently acquired by Google is VERY popular and allows for a RSS Feed to display several options, below is my FeedBurner feed for The Fatty Talks by Adam Hirsch, which gives you options of how you’d like to “Subscribe”. Thank you Google for making the Pro Options Free!!!
and finally all of these feeds don’t do you any good unless you have something and somewhere to read them. The key is to have them somewhere you look often… My next post will describe the options… Leave me a comment if you learned anything from this!
Continuing the Feed Education series from the previous post, knowing what a feed is and how you can identify and subscribe to them, doesn’t really help you unless you have a Feed Reader. However, you must (in order to stay up to date) use a Feed Reader that suits you and your daily schedule. I’ll review several options that I think are standard yet fully functional and for the “Average” Internet User, but could be and IS used by the most technologically savvy nerds out there.
Google Reader = most popular reader. I personally don’t like it because if I’m at work and someone looks over at my screen it’s obvious that I’m NOT doing work. Plus I don’t use GMail.
“My Pages” = basically consists of several options of a “home page”. They include MyYahoo, IGoogle, NetVibes, PageFlakes, etcetera. You can add the RSS Feed easily through the Feedburner Feed Options or manually enter in the URL for the feed. For example in MyYahoo:
(
reminder, clicking on the icon in a browser will direct you to the feed URL to enter)
Newsgator = I personally use FeedDemon, but that is just the Desktop version of the web based Newsgator Feed Reader. I personally think having the ability to look at the feeds on your desktop is well presented with higher functionality (more below).
(note: keeping feeds separated into Folders, usually by category will make life and feed reading a lot easier when you have over 100 feeds. With folders, you can view updated information by Topic, like in the screen shot above, News, New York, Personal and Technology)
Yahoo Mail = I personally use Yahoo! Mail Plus ($20 per year) which has no advertising, Pop Forwarding features (for my PDA usage), unlimited storage and the ability to setup unlimited Disposable Addresses, which comes in handy when subscribing to all the web pages out there (can setup right from Yahoo! Toolbar).
Reminder: The advantage of a Web Based Feed Reader is that the content is always available and synchronized no matter which computer or PDA or phone you are using (options to view on PDA or Phone look like www.google.com/reader/m).
Not to be excluded, Internet Explorer and Firefox have built it RSS Feed Readers and Firefox has several RSS Feed Reader Add-ons. However, there is a lack of synchronization between these readers so there will be a lot of sifting of previously read articles between computers.
FeedDemon = This is what I use and I think it is Amazing (but I have a few suggestions for improvement).
The advantages are:
the FeedDemon Tray Icon is a great advantage which allows you to X it out and keep it in the tray, keeping your taskbar clean and open for all the other programs you have open.
The disadvantages are that it cost me some money, $29.95 to be precise. It was and IS well worth it (price for 2 computers).
Outlook = Another great way to pretend like you are doing work and reading e-mails while really catching up with the latest and greatest. Also, to contradict myself, sometimes reading blogs and keeping up with the “latest and greatest” is beneficial to your field. Personally, I keep up with all that is Real Estate. The disadvantages was that it became overwhelming for me to view the feeds through Outlook. It also noticeably slowed down it’s performance.
Once again, hope you learned something and if not, hopefully you know of someone to send this post to in order to educate your friends on “keeping up with the times”.
A great source for more on RSS Feed Readers is the The Ultimate RSS Toolbox - 120+ RSS Resources by Mashable.com !
Basically, Wordpress.org is the Open Source (plugin-enabled) Wordpress.com version. It’s relatively complicated for most users to install a Wordpress installation in their Domain Name, so here are steps to make your life easier…
Determine a web hosting solution that has a Fantasico Script Installer, which installs programs with 1 click, such as Wordpress. Luckily, I use BlueHost.com and they are always up to date with the latest version. $6.95 / month isn’t bad if you are not expecting thousands of visitors every day. I believe that the $6.95 is a 2 year commitment price and that $7.95 is a 1 year commitment price, FYI. Be sure to forward the Nameservers to whichever hosting service you use in order to enable the host to access your Domain. Note, Bluehost.com does have a FREE Domain with the plan. 
button in your “Software/Services” section of your control panel…Customization and Plugins education to follow.
Well, you can’t discuss a Wordpress.org installation without mentioning Plugins. So, basically, to make it simple, here are the plugins I use, the hyperlinks get you to the downloads, you upload them (with folders if there are multiple files) into the wp-content/plugins directory of your blog. I’ve provided screenshots for applicable plugins.
Google Adsense widget = Pretty Self Explanatory, but it allows for a sidebar widget (and other places with configuration) for displaying your Google Adsense ads.
All in One SEO Pack = enables certain modifications to your Wordpress Blog to provide Search Engine Optimization. (enable Search Engines to better pick up your site)
AJAX Comments = this provides an easy and quick Comments interface in your comments section for your visitors.
Akismet = So far this “SPAM” catcher has caught everything that is SPAM (and trust me, it’s odd, but you receive SPAM comments on Wordpress blogs.
Blogroll Page = Easily create a new page that if you insert a snippet of code, it displays your Blogroll, as in http://www.thefattytalks.com/blog-roll/
Enforce www. Preference = Important Search Engine Optimization fact is that Google and other search engines will pickup thefattytalks.com and www.thefattytalks.com if you do not have this plugin enforced. This helps because duplicates are bad for Search Engine Optimization.
FeedBurner FeedSmith = Now that Google bought Feedburner (.com), Feedburner’s Pro features are now FREE. So, once again, Thank You Google! Feedburner FeedSmith alters your Wordpress feed to automatically switch to the Feedburner feed, in my case www.thefattytalks.com/feed/ becomes http://feeds.feedburner.com/AdamAHirschBlog. Feedburner is awesome because you can customize your feed with extra social links, email this and you can monitor subscriptions, errors with your feed and even have your feed optimized.
Google XML Sitemaps = Sitemaps are important for Search Engines to easily and speedily recognize your Blog and the pages it contains within. Keeping an up to date Sitemap with Google Webmaster Tools increases your visibility with Google.
Google Analyticator = Enter in your Google Analytics “unique code” to monitor your web site traffic. Google Analytics is by far the most comprehensive FREE web site tracking and statistics web site.
iWPhone = Simple Plugin that optimizes your blog for the IPhone. I tested this out recently and it works like a charm.
MyBlogLog Widget = MyBlogLog is a great community of Blog authors who share their favorite blogs and their communities around them. This sidebar widget displays Recent Readers from MyBlogLog.
Naatan.com Notify Me = Although this created problems for me with Microsoft Live Writer, since it sends out e-mails of your posts to subscribers immediately after you post an item, I still use it because of the extremely clean interface and clear HTML e-mails it sends. You can also create an easy “Subscribe by E-mail” Sidebar widget…
Picasa Photos = I think the Picasa Photos look great compared to the Flickr Photos when they display on the sidebar.
Subscribe me = This plugin is a great sidebar widget to add to the top of your sidebar that adds a variety (which you can choose from) of “Subscribe to my feed” through…
WordPress.com Stats = Note: You need a Wordpress.com API Key (I luckily first used adamhirsch.WordPress.com for my blog and now synchronize them), so I had this key (found in Options –> Users –> Your Profile). This plugin though, recently updated, allows you to view your Blog Statistics (most popular posts, visitors, referrals) on your Wordpress.org Blog Stats menu.
Sociable = A great plugin with many options (you can choose which to use) of Social Bookmarking services to add to the bottom of posts in your pages, single posts or feeds. Mine are below…
Share This = Similar to Sociable, but not as trustworthy I realized (has glitches in where the window opens in IE), provides Social Bookmarking in an easy pull down menu and a really simple “E-mail This” post, which is mainly why I use it (since you don’t have to leave the post area at anytime.
wp-cache = Simple plugin that “Caches” your web site for optimal load times.
WP Plugins Tracker = New Plugin that I love, checks all your plugins (activated or not) and determines if your version # is the same or outdated. Easily click the Plugin Name to go to the Plugin’s Web Site to download the updated version from there.
WordPress Mobile Edition = Simple plugin that you upload also to the “Themes” directory that enables optimization for mobile phone viewing.
That’s it. Those are the plugins I installed, activated and use. Trust me, I’ve tried others, these, for the general purposes of a simple blog (no videos, pictures, directory, code explanations).
Hope you learned something and if you are a Beginner, be sure to check out the whole Technology Education Category.
Technorati Tags: Wordpress, Wordpress Plugins, Plugins, Top Plugins, Widgets, Sidebar, Sidebar Widgets, Wordpress Widgets, Adam Hirsch
Basically, it’s pretty simple to find Plugins and Themes for Wordpress.org installations, just search Google. However, there are definitely resources out there that are misleading and some that are better than others.
Wordpress PluginsFYI, most plugins should be uploaded into the wp-content/plugins/ directory of your blog. Once there, in the control panel/administration section, hit “Plugins” and “Activate” it.
Always do this one at a time in order to identify an incompatible plugin. Sidebar or Widget Plugins after activated usually need further implementation, by going to your “Presentation” and Sidebar/Widgets button and bring the item you wish to include into the sidebar.
Before Choosing Your Plugins Always be sure to check:
The obvious choices and the first place to check (and you should look through all of them first before deciding which to use) is Wordpress.org…
http://codex.wordpress.org/Plugins = Introduction and Explanation of Plugins, with a variety of information, plugins and directories
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/ = The official Wordpress Plugins Directory. Always check what’s “Most Popular” for a good head start
http://wp-plugins.net/ = Wordpress Plugin Database is expansive and categorized, but I find that it’s a little complicated to browse through everything. However, when searching for category specific plugins, it’s very handy
http://www.bloggingpro.com/archives/category/wordpress-plugins/ = Blogging Pro has a good but small variety of plugins with explanations and updates
http://weblogtoolscollection.com/pluginblog/ = WeblogtoolsCollections is having a Wordpress Plugin Competition which spurred some great plugins. Right now (August 8th 2007) the competition is in the voting phase. So Get to voting or if you check this afterwards, find the great plugins.
http://alexking.org/projects/wordpress/ = Alex King has a great list of Plugins, with easy access to Downloads and the Readme’s, each plugin’s description is well done.
http://dev.wp-plugins.org/wiki/PluginDirectory = Small but useful plugins directory
To install themes, upload into wp-content/themes/ directory. Go to Administration, Presentations and Choose from the Available Themes.
Be Careful about installing themes, since a variety of them aren’t always compatible with the plugins and some may have a few bugs. (Also, you should never have to really pay for a theme)
Before I get to the themes directory, my 2 favorites:
http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/ = Official Wordpress.org Themes Directory, contains only a few themes, but has a theme list (basically just see below)
http://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Themes/Theme_List = Not the best, but a comprehensive list, doesn’t include screenshots
http://themes.wordpress.net/ = Wordpress Theme Viewer has a great amount of themes, with screenshots and the ability to “Test Run”
http://www.wpthemesfree.com/ = This site includes Themes broken down into categories by amount of columns, colors, corner types, number of sidebars with screenshots and demos
http://alexking.org/projects/wordpress/themes = Doesn’t include screenshots on the main directory, but has a good list
http://www.wpthemespot.com/ = A semi-large collection with screenshots and “Live Previews”
http://www.themeporter.com/ = A good source for themes with well-written descriptions and screenshots (includes demos)
Well, that should be it. If you have any questions, feel free to comment and I’ll respond.
Technorati Tags: Wordpress, Plugins, Themes, Screenshots, Education, Directories, Installation
Obviously, the first step is to setup Google Adsense and place the code into the Google Adsense sidebar plugin/widget. However, there are many more options, which I am currently exploring. The best explanations and links to your options, that I found, were all through DoshDosh.
Ways to Make Money Online- A Guide
How to Make More Money with Your Website (without Getting More Traffic)
10 Powerful Direct Advertising Options to Easily Monetize Your Website or Blog
So You Want to Make Money Online- An Extensive Guide to T-Shirt Affiliate Marketing
Thanks DoshDosh!!!
Finally Mashable had enough mini Wordpress Lists to combine them all into one GIANT Wordpress Plugins List. Not the end all and be all of lists, but has great descriptions and will definitely serve as a great directory for awhile.
WORDPRESS GOD: 300+ Tools for Running Your WordPress Blog
Highly customizable and SOOO easy to use. I think Mandigo is one of the sexiest Wordpress Themes (and free), I’ve ever seen (and I’ve definitely looked at hundreds). Not only is it sexy, the options from the theme menu allow you to make crucial changes without delving into the CSS and HTML of the pages.
Here are some Configuration Screen Shots (notice it even includes a great README):
All with a Preview of the site with the changes:
To check out the Handy Work that I created, see The Hypothetical, a great blog about News, Fashion, Literature, Politics and More.
Technorati Tags: Mandigo, Wordpress, Theme, The Hypothetical
Thanks to my friend Todd, I/he realized that the Protectwebform.com’s CAPTCHA Wordpress Plugin I had previously installed apparently didn’t work in Safari, which is not a lot of users but still, quite a few.
The new Wordpress Plugin called ReCaptcha that I am using is working perfectly in Safari, Firefox and IE. Plugin can be downloaded here.
The interesting tidbit about ReCAPTCHA is that while you enter in the words it actually helps digitize books… Quite interesting, definitely read their explanation.
Anyways, to inform you, since Todd didn’t know…
The term CAPTCHA (for Completely Automated Turing Test To Tell Computers and Humans Apart) was coined in 2000 by Luis von Ahn, Manuel Blum, Nicholas Hopper and John Langford of Carnegie Mellon University. At the time, they developed the first CAPTCHA to be used by Yahoo.
I’ve been reading WebProNews coverage of the SES (Search Engine Strategies) Conference and Expo in San Jose and they’ve been doing a great job. I’ve posted below links to their best and informative posts related to blogging, web sites and search engine optimization. Enjoy…
