Pimp that blog

Do not allow open registrations

Ed__ — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 21:56:22 +0000

If you have a self-hosted wordpress, please be careful with allowing registration open to anyone.
I just learned the hard way, my host got complaints of paypal phishing on my site, of course now i’am locked out of my account, at this point giving out more information probably will just make things worse, but this is what they found on my website:

/wp-content/uploads/www.paypal.fr/cgi-bin/webscrcmd=_login-run/webscrcmd=_account-run/updates-paypal/confirm-paypal/

… and now my domain will probably get tagged as phishing site, totally not worth it for letting open registrations.

Don't do it!

So admins out there, be careful here’s a good article i found and that i will be following closely in the future:
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/10-steps-to-protect-the-admin-area-in-wordpress/

7 Interface Design Techniques to Simplify and De-clutter Your Interfaces | Webdesigner Depot

Ed__ — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 03:08:20 +0000

7 Interface Design Techniques to Simplify and De-clutter Your Interfaces | Webdesigner Depot.

Fight comment spam

Ed__ — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 22:49:37 +0000

I hate spam, you hate spam, comment spam on self-hosted wordpress is still very real, and will grow exponentially as your blog popularity does. Akismet and Re-Captcha might be the biggest spam fighters out there, but let’s face it they’re far from the best, and I personally hate captchas with a passion. There’s nothing like a blurry captcha to make me lose all interest in leaving a comment. Right now the plugin I’m using is ‘antispam bee‘ and i really can’t complain. Here’s a few other wordpress plugins with interesting approaches to help you fight spam:

antispam-bee

yawasp

wp-spamfree

(Not a wp plugin but very interesting concept)
ajax-fancy-captcha-jquery-plugin

Weekend Link Round

Ed__ — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 23:22:41 +0000

Let’s see how this goes, i’ll try to post the links that caught my attention during the week, not a top 10, or top 20, or top any number, just the best articles i read this week, regardless of it’s number.

30 Most Wanted WordPress Comments Page Hacks

Customize Your Blog Posts Without Touching Your Theme Files

15 Things I Wish I Had Known When I Started My First Blog

How to run a successful and profitable blog in under one hour a week

Comment Threading is Here!

satorii

Ed__ — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 04:10:52 +0000

It has a minimalist, elegant and clean style, and it’s strongly focused on content.
It’s based on the Sandbox theme by Scott Allan Wallick, and it uses Yahoo User Interface CSS framework, jQuery for javascript goodies and Mini Icons by Timothy Grove.

Live demo | Download

Mixtape

Ed__ — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 23:12:20 +0000

Mixtape is a lightweight, one or two column, widgetized, WordPress theme designed completely with CSS, sans image graphics. Similar to muxtape.com, Mixtape is ideal for sharing/listening to music online. This theme utilizes a combination of Sandbox — a valid XHTML / CSS selector rich WordPress environment, Tripoli — a generic CSS standard for HTML rendering and SoundManager 2 — a new Javascript API that utilizes Flash audio capabilities. Mixtape was developed for WordPress 2.5+, but it should also work in 2.3.+. It has been tested mostly in Safari and Firefox but it should also maintain its look in IE 6 and IE 7 outside of a few font discrepancies. This marks my first stab at developing a theme for WordPress so please let me know of any bugs you may find in the comments area.

Demo | Download

Cafe Press

Ed__ — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 19:41:04 +0000

Cafe Press is a small business theme built for small business owners tackling many customization and management activities with ease. The Cafe Press administration options page includes configuration and management for several key display and content customization tasks. Easily add your own logo, configure your business details and contact information, add featured content items and even add Google Analytics tracking code to your site without touching a singe theme file.
Blog or No Blog… It’s Your Choice

Live Demo | Purchase

40 Free Beautiful Blogger Templates, Part III

Ed__ — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 17:56:37 +0000

40 Free Beautiful Blogger Templates, Part III | Graphics.

Improve Your Blog by Updating Your About Page

Ed__ — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 20:25:49 +0000

Here’s a great post by Teli Adlam, about why is important to update your ‘About’ page.

Some of the information that your “About” page should contain is:

Your name: Seems obvious, doesn’t it? But you’d be surprised how many people miss the boat on this one. Tell your blog readers who you are, even if it’s an anonymous blog, use your pseudonym or be clever, and a picture also helps readers connect on a personal level.

Continue reading: Improve Your Blog by Updating Your About Page

twitterfeed

Ed__ — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 18:30:34 +0000

There are wordpress plugins that can automatically send your posts to twitter, but what if you don’t use wordpress, or you can’t install plugins, such as with all blogs here at wordpress.com. Twitterfeed on the other hand doesn’t stop there, and it’s easy to use with no extra load to your server.

Twitterfeed can send your posts to twitter, identi.ca or Ping.fm, which in turn supports “over 30 social networks”, so if you need to send your blog updates to your favorite microblogging service, plus your facebook/myspace etc. accounts this is the best tool to do so. All you need is an openid, your blog’s feed url and you’re set.

Of course there are some limitations:

Both RSS and Atom feeds are supported. Posts need to contain publish dates in order for our server to know what’s new. Feeds requiring authentication will fail.

So what do you think, have you tried this yet?