Working with Wordpress 2.7
Over the holidays, I decided to do a total overhaul on my 101Date.com site which involved converting all my static HTML pages to Wordpress posts and pages.
Because it was a new blog installation, I ended up working with the new Wordpress 2.7.
At first, I was slightly turned off by the new dulled-down appearance of the Dashboard.
I mean, it just isn’t as colorful or easy to read as the 2.6.3 Dashboard.
However, once I started getting used to the layout and working with all the nifty new features, I REALLY started to appreciate the latest version and the look didn’t matter anymore. (A ’stick-to-it’ attitude that I could have / should have adopted much earlier in life – apologies to a few suitors from years gone by. 
)
The most noteable changes are with the navigation, which has been changed from a horizontal top bar to a vertical left-hand sidebar. And unlike the separation that occured between Writing, Reading, Discussion functions and the Settings, Plugins components in versions 2.5 onwards, all the functions are now available together on the left-side.
Particularly handy is the new “Quick Edit” feature as shown in the next screen capture.
This feature allows you to change any of the following items without having to open the post in full.
- Title
- Slug
- Category
- Tags
- Date
- Password
- Privacy
- Allow Comments
- Allow Pings
- Make Sticky
- Publish Status
By making the items available in a compact area, you’ll save a little time with each post you edit in that you don’t have open a page, wait for it to load or mouse from one corner of the page to the other selecting various items that you want to change.
Although that might seem like a very small matter, all those small amounts of time add up to a BIG chunk of time over the course of a year.
Want more info?
Rosalind Gardner is a Super Affiliate blogger, author, speaker, and Internet marketing consultant.
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WP 2.7’s new approach to the Dashboard and the overall rapidity of editing and admin definitely lowered the learning curve – so much so that I’m also giving serious thought to abandoning my Drupal nightmares in favor of a migration to WP for the social network as well.
Hi Casey,
Sorry to hear that you’ve been having Drupal nightmares.
I’d highly recommend migrating to WP. Maybe not as full-featured yet (then again, I haven’t reviewed Drupal in quite some time) but certainly moving in that direction and ease-of-use (lack of nightmares) is certainly a huge benefit.
Good luck!
Cheers,
Ros
I love the automatic updates. Everyday another plugin is updated an all I have to do is click a button and the update is performed. Very nice.
I liked the automatic updates as well, but here’s a secret.
I still download the latest plugin to a file on my computer, just to have it available should things go awry.
Ros
Hi Ros,
As someone like myself who In the past have had with static web sites and now converting to “CMS” do you worry about 10 years from now when Wordpress may not be around and your sites are in MySql databases? I guess one could always convert the db, etc. Also having my site in a single database scares me even with regular backups.. I am probably over thinking this but, I find comfort in being able to look at all my individual static html pages and know their safe
Hope this didn’t get to geeky but I am interested in your opinion on this..
Thanks,
Steve
Hey Steve,
Can’t say that I’m worried about WP not being around. Just expect it will continue to get better and better – become a full-blown CMS, perhaps. We can only hope. Especially if it continues with it’s ease-of-use.
Besides, I’ve got it covered. Other than backing up the databases, I also keep pared-down text/html versions of my articles, posts, etc. on my computer. Granted, it would take weeks and months to rebuild, but better than having nothing at all.
And as long as you’re doing and saving backups, having all in the single db isn’t a problem.
So… don’t worry, be happy.
Cheers,
Ros
Most people I talked to since the launch of WP 2.7 really like the new interface and added features. The team at WP has done a great job in redesigning the dashboard (again) but the good news is, most likely the interface won’t change much for some time.
Hi Hendry,
Not changing the Wordpress interface again for some time would be a very good thing, as I really need to do a tutorial update and would prefer not to have to keep doing them over and over and over again.
Cheers,
Ros
Hi Ros,
Is there any advantage in changing a static site to a WP site (using Static Front Page)? I have another small site which isn’t doing very well in GG in spite of applying SEO.
Thanks a million
Wendy
Hi Wendy,
Absolutely and as fast as you can – especially if it isn’t doing very well in the search engines.
The biggest advantage that I always see with Wordpress is immediate traffic and rankings. It’s amazing.
Just be sure that you do redirects from your old pages to your new… or do a really good 404 page from which your visitors can find everything really easily.
Cheers,
Ros
Thanks Ros, I’ll start on it straight away.
Wendy
Rosalind did you have any problems with any plugins with 2.7? I had two that did not work with 2.7 wp-sticky and light admin menus. 2.7 does have a sticky but I was using it to make announcement post and I could not find a way to make an announcement post woth 2.7’s sticky. Other than that 2.7 been nice and I’m getting use to it.
Hi Louis,
The plugins that I used (only about 10) all worked, but I didn’t try wp-sticky or the light admin menus.
The commentary on the Wordpress plugin directory indicates that the latest release of wp-sticky is for 2.7. Check here:
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-sticky/
Would hope the same is true for the light admin menus and would check but I’m already running late for a flight.
Cheers,
Ros
Your screen capture of 101dating….I gather you know that David DeAngelo is actually a guy by the name of Eban Pagen….mind you, from a marketability standpoint, if my name was Eban Pagen and I was trying to sell a book on dating advice, I think I would have chosen to use a pseudonym too! LOL!
Anyway, back on topic….like you, we recently switched our Vedder Mountain site from static to wordpress…and experienced an immediate MASSIVE boost in serp positioning and consequently traffic!
I had read lots about this happening but never really gave it too much credence…crazy….I’m talking HOURS here, not days, weeks or months! From the “back 40, to the first page for most of our main keywords, within hours of making the posts. Double indented listings for many of them. And a month later, all these search results for our main keywords are still stable. I’m a convert!
Thanks for all the great conversations you start Rosalind Gardner!
Michael Rytter
Hey Michael,
I do know Eban and was disappointed that I had to miss his Green Room session recently.
Glad to hear that you’re getting the same good results with Wordpress… it’s amazing, isn’t it.
BTW, are you under water there in Chilliwack?
Cheers,
Ros
FUNNY GIRL! LOL! Actually this is the worst I’ve ever seen it. We had to buy a boat! (I’m kidding….)
We are right beside Vedder Mountain, and have the neatest little year round waterfall coming down the mountain right beside our property…-until now! The thing has turned into Niagra Falls!
Mormally about 2 feet wide, it is now about eight feet wide, has caused a small slide (Vedder Road is closed, exept to local traffic) and is so loud we can hear the roar of the water inside the house. The city worked all night the other night with loaders and gravel trucks trying to re-direct this thing so it would stop eroding the ground under Vedder Mountain Road.
Our little one acre property is relatively unscathed although it did wash some debri from the mountainside across the road and into our driveway the other night.
I am grateful that the last time there was a risk of the Vedder river breaching the dike close to us, (due to the huge snowmelt), we brought in 21 truckloads of dirt and raised the property. That seems to have done the trick. Nixon Rd (our other property by the Falls golf course) took a beating and is closed. (I haven’t been up there yet.)
Anyway, I digress. (As usual) Seem to love hearing myself type!
Take care, and all the best to you and yours in the coming year(s)!
Michael Rytter
Rosalind
On your dating site when mousing over your categories instead of them displaying like this
http://101date.com/category/mail-order-bride-services/
it shows like this
http://101date.com/dating-categories/mail-order-bride-services/
How did you insert the word dating and change the category to categories?
Or are you using wordpress for this site?
thanks
Mark
Hi Mark,
Oh goodie, an easy question at bedtime. (Only ’cause I have to get up at 3:30a.m.)
Entering
/%category%/(including the foreward slashes) in your Permalinks will insert the name of the category itself.Enjoy!
Ros
One problem I keep having is with my permalinks. No matter which way I set that up when trying to optimize them to be keywords, I always get directed to the 404 page. Why is that?
Edward
Hmmmm.. I honestly don’t know why the heck that would happen.
What happens when you return to the default settings?
Cheers,
Ros
Thats the thing, when I go back to the default settings, it’s ok. The only thing I do when I set up my blogs that might have an effect, is I change the url from the original: EX: http://bestblogsite.ws And change it to:
http://www.bestblogsite.ws
The reason I do this, is because I’ve noticed that sometimes without the www
not all the pages are indexed the same way, or as effectively for seo.
Would that have something to do with it??
Ros,
WP or Joomla
I consider myself a litle technical when it comes to portals and the like. I am hoping that I will be having more than just one website very soon on different domains of course.
Would it be easier to go CMS right now? (I am considering Joomla 1.5.x) now and have all the websites in the same CMS (not sure if the hosting company allows this, must check). I just checked that Joomla seems to have SEO friendly URLs in the new version.
I am just beginning to build my very first website.
Thanks
mappan
The problem I’m having is on WP. When I add /%category%/ for example, I still get that problem.
Hi Mappan,
If you’re just starting out, then by all means, go CMS. It’s so much more SEO friendly and better than having to tweak (or in my case, break) your template – not to mention uploading 100’s of pages via FTP everytime you make a change.
Although it’s been awhile since I reviewed Joomla, I’d highly recommend that you take a good look at Wordpress before you make that decision.
Best of luck!
Cheers,
Ros
I would really like to upgrade to 2.7 but I’m afraid plugins or other things won’t work and I’ll be down and frustrated for days. I hate that feeling.
Thanks,
Chris
Chris,
Are you entering that under “Category Base” and have you changed permissions on your files?
Ros
As a Joomla user, I have to say I am actually impressed by the new dashboard of WordPress and I think it has a bit more professional look and functionality to it. I’d still like to see a better editor though. In response to a couple others regarding Drupal and or Joomla, I think it’s a confusing dilemma when trying to decide which is better when you also have WordPress to consider as well. I like to tell people to consider the long-term potential of your website and what functions and features are or will be important to you.
For myself, I am actually beta testing a component that literally puts a fully functional WordPress into the Joomla cms and I can say once the testing is done, I plan to use this WordPress component for the blog section while keeping the flexibility and scalability of Joomla along side.
Anyway, hopefully for the 101date.com site, the WordPress 2.7 works out well for you Rosalind…oh and by the way, very good on downloading updated plugins to your computer first incase anything does go awry …awesome advice for anyone (even I learned the hardway).
Hi Ros,
Thanks for taking the time to answer all of these questions, you are a huge help! I just stumbled upon your chapter in Yanik’s Silver’s “Moonlighting on the Internet” and am trying to enter the world of affiliate marketing now. I’ve read a lot of your posts and I will be buying your book in a few days to get started and am really excited to develop this business!
Anyway, I was wondering if you recommend any particular themes or do you build yours from scratch? I’m trying to learn everything I can so I can get going when I get the book!
Thanks!
Kelly
Hi Ros,
Ok, I found your post about your recommended WP themes, sorry about that! As I’m installing WP on my godaddy hosting account, I noticed they have an upgrade (2.7.1) which fixes 68 bugs/glitches in 2.7. Just throwing it out there…back to niche searchin!
http://wordpress.org/download/
Thanks for all your great posts again!
Kelly
Hi Kelly,
I Love Brian Gardner’s Revolution Themes. You can see them at
http://netprofitstoday.com/recommends/revolution/
I’ll also be talking more about them in an upcoming newsletter.
Cheers,
Ros