Blogging

Good News/Bad News: A new version of Wordpress is out…

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Wow! It’s exciting, Ella’s here! Yes, the new version of Wordpress 2.1 is already here, and I just installed the previous version! Anyway here’s the details about it…

  1. Autosave makes sure you never lose a post again.
  2. Our new tabbed editor allows you to switch between WYSIWYG and code editing instantly while writing a post.
  3. The lossless XML import and export makes it easy for you to move your content between WordPress blogs.
  4. Our completely redone visual editor also now includes spell checking.
  5. New search engine privacy option allows you take you to indicate your blog shouldn’t ping or be indexed by search engines like Google.
  6. You can set any “page” to be the front page of your site, and put the latest posts somewhere else, making it much easier to use WordPress as a content management system.
  7. Much more efficient database code, faster than previous versions. Domas Mituzas from MySQL went over all our queries with a fine-toothed comb.
  8. Links in your blogroll now support sub-categories and you can add categories on the fly.
  9. Redesigned login screen from the Shuttle project.
  10. More AJAX to make custom fields, moderation, deletions, and more all faster. My favorite is the comments page, which new lets you approve or unapprove things instantly.
  11. Pages can now be drafts, or private.
  12. Our admin has been refreshed to load faster and be more visually consistent.
  13. The dashboard now instantly and brings RSS feeds asynchronously in the background.
  14. Comment feeds now include all the comments, not just the last 10.
  15. Better internationalization and support for right-to-left languages.
  16. The upload manager lets you easily manage all your uploads pictures, video, and audio.
  17. A new version of the Akismet plugin is bundled.

I guess I’ll be upgrading my other blog to the new version first!

Blogging Software: BlogDesk

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Blog Desk is an interesting blog editor. Its website states:

Blogging should be simple, but it gets complicated and time-consuming if you are serious about it. BlogDesk makes it easy to write, speeds up lavish processes and assists the author with smart features.

And actually, I’d agree with that assessment. I’m using it as I write this post. It’s simple, it’s got most of the basic features, but there are some important limitations, too.

blogdesk

OK. The pluses:

  1. It has a very simple interface that makes it easy to do the most important things, you won’t get distracted. But you can get down to work right away.
  2. It installs simply in every system since Windows 98SE, making it the most ‘open’ minded Windows software! Now that is a good thing.
  3. Everything else compares favorably with the actual Wordpress Interface, but it’s all on your desktop.
  4. It’s got a template function, that may be quite helpful, if you want to add a certain text to posts, or if you need to add a standard layout (e.g. a textbox with some code in it) for posts.
  5. Its image wizard tools are VERY helpful in getting the right settings for pictures on your blog!
  6. It’s opensource, and ‘free’.

The minuses:

  1. I can’t find any way to edit the categories, which may be a problem if you need to add a new category for a posting you’re writing.
  2. Also, there seems to be no access to posts that you have already started in Wordpress, but you want to finish on your PC.
  3. It may not support your type of blogging CMS system, though many of the standard ones are supported, such as EE, WP, MT and Drupal.

Since I’ve only just started using BlogDesk, I’d like to share those reflections with you all. I’ll probably add more as I go along, so do check back!

Tags: blogging, tools

In Sex and Blogging: is Frequency, Length, or Regularity important?

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John Chow has been writing about good blogging habits. I especially enjoyed the one that suggests that post frequency is quite an important measure in the success of a blog. Post Length & Post Frequency.

He writes: “Nothing turns off a blog reader more than seeing a blog updated once per day for a week, then suddenly no updates at all. If you’re going to update your blog once per day (or whatever frequency you choose), then stick to it. Don’t be an on again, off again blogger. Your blog will never grow if you do that.”

Steve Pavlina also addresses this concern: “Some bloggers say it’s best to write short (250-750 word) entries and post 20x per week or more. I’ve seen that strategy work for some, but I decided to do pretty much the opposite. I usually aim for about 3-5 posts per week, but my posts are much longer (typically 1000-2000 words, sometimes longer than 5000 words, including the monster you’re reading right now). That’s because rather than throwing out lots of short tips, I prefer to write more exhaustive, in-depth articles. I find that deeper articles are better at generating links and referrals and building traffic. … I don’t believe in creating disposable content just to increase page views and ad impressions. If I’m not truly helping my visitors, I’m wasting their time.”

I’m still trying to work out my own rhythm on this blog, as you’ll see. But I’ll be trying to aim for more regular short posts, and less frequent longer ones (though I have to find the quiet space where I can spend more time thinking about those! – and that’s not easy in my house or workspace at the moment!).

Hopefully, you’ll give some feedback via comments, posts, stats and feedback on what works and what doesn’t!