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Privacy Policy for our website

If you require any more information or have any questions about our privacy policy, please feel free to contact us by email using our Contact form, linked from our homepage.

At our website, the privacy of our visitors is of extreme importance to us. This privacy policy document outlines the types of personal information is received and collected by our website and how it is used.

Log Files

Like many  — perhaps most –  other Web sites, our website makes use of log files. That’s partly for security, so we can identify any problems before they occur.  The information inside the log files includes internet protocol ( IP ) addresses, type of browser, Internet Service Provider ( ISP ), date/time stamp, referring/exit pages, and number of clicks to analyze trends, administer the site, track user’s movement around the site, and gather demographic information. IP addresses, and other such information are not linked to any information that is personally identifiable.

Cookies and Web Beacons

Our website does not use cookies.

Advertising

This website is partially funded through our generous sponsors and advertisers. We use as little advertising as we can, and — when it’s necessary — only to cover our hosting and maintenance expenses. We avoid advertising programs  with any privacy risks.  In fact, we avoid advertising, period.

DoubleClick DART Cookie

.:: Google, as a third party vendor, uses cookies to serve ads on our website.

.:: Google’s use of the DART cookie enables it to serve ads to users based on their visit to our website and other sites on the Internet.

.:: Users may opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google ad and content network privacy policy at the following URL – http://www.google.com/privacy_ads.html

Ads that may appear at our website

Some of our advertising partners may use cookies and web beacons on our site. Our advertising partners may include Google Adsense, Commission Junction, Clickbank, Amazon, and other resources that offer useful products or links that seem to interest our website visitors.  (If we see a lack of interest, we discontinue the program.)

These third-party ad servers or ad networks use technology to the advertisements and links that appear on our website send directly to your browsers. They automatically receive your IP address when this occurs.   That’s used, in part, to identify which country you’re from, and which languages your ads could appear in.

Other technologies ( such as cookies, JavaScript, or Web Beacons ) may also be used by the third-party ad networks to measure the effectiveness of their advertisements and / or to personalize the advertising content that you see.

Our website has no access to or control over these cookies that are used by third-party advertisers. However, we urge you to disable cookies on your computer if this is a concern for you. That’s controlled in your browser, usually in the Options tab related to privacy, security, or general settings.

Or, you can regularly use a free program such as SpyBot or AdAware by Lavasoft.  They can safely clean old tracking cookies off your computer in a matter of minutes.

You should consult the respective privacy policies of these third-party ad servers for more detailed information on their practices as well as for instructions about how to opt-out of certain practices.

Our website’s privacy policy does not apply to, and we cannot control the activities of, such other advertisers or web sites.

If you wish to disable cookies, you may do so through your individual browser options. More detailed information about cookie management with specific web browsers can be found at the browsers’ respective websites.

Here are links that can help you, if you want to reconfigure your browser.  If the links aren’t current, use the search form at the respective site and look for “cookies.”

Firefox – Internet Explorer – Opera

In general, it’s good to have a privacy policy, anyway.  Here’s the easiest way to add one to your Branford Magazine website.

1. Visit SERPrank.com to auto-generate your privacy policy.  It’s easy… check the appropriate boxes, add your domain name and — presto! — you’ll have a privacy policy to copy-and-paste.

2. Copy that text and paste it into the “Visual” tab as a new Post or Page at your website.

If it’s a Page and your pages are listed somewhere on all of your webpages, your work is finished.  Otherwise, here are some options.

2a. Add the URL of your privacy policy page or post in your list of links in the sidebar… if you have a list of links in your sidebar.

2b. Or, add the URL of your privacy policy in your footer.  That’s what I’ve done for most of my websites.

First, to go your WordPress dashboard and click on Appearance > Editor.  There, click on “Footer” in the right column of that page.  Your footer.php will open in the center panel.

Add the URL of your privacy policy anywhere in the footer text.  You’ll make it a link with code that looks like this <a href=”XXX”>Privacy policy</a>, where “XXX” is your privacy policy URL.

You can see how I’ve done this in the screenshot, below.  (Click on the image to see it larger.) I add the privacy policy link immediately after the theme credits.

2c. Finally, save the footer.php file, and return to your usual work on your website.

Your Appearance > Editor screen will look a little different.  It includes line numbers on the left.  That can make it easier to go back and tweak a line, without having to scan code to find it.

Also, if you add an “a href” link in your Editor screen, the program adds the opening and closing quotation marks automatically.

Some plugins may not be updated for 2.8 yet.  If you have any problems with them, you can either Deactivate them (in Plugins, on your WP dashboard) or delete them via FTP.  (I did the latter for the Limit Login Attempts plugin, if it locked me out.  But, that only happened on a few sites.)

So, go ahead and update to WordPress 2.8.

—

Also, here’s what I said when WordPress 2.7.1 launched:

If you’ve worried about updating from WordPress 2.7 to WordPress 2.7.1, you can relax.

In general, the changes in 2.7.1 are behind-the-scenes and affect minor code issues.  The biggest change you may notice is that most plugins work again, now.  (Chances are, you didn’t have a problem with your plugins, so you won’t even notice this.)

Your dashboard will look the same as before.  Everything should work the same or better.

So, it’s safe to upgrade to WordPress 2.7.1 if you were using WordPress 2.7.

(If you hadn’t upgraded to WordPress 2.7 yet, the new dashboard looks very different.  If you upgrade to 2.7 and you’re very confused about the changes, the new edition of my book covers the biggest changes.)

On my websites, I’ve upgraded to WordPress 2.7.1, and I can’t see any differences between that and WordPress 2.7.  Life is good!

During June 2009, I’m experimenting with higher commissions.  You can earn 60% ($10.20) every time someone buys a copy of Sites that Soar using your unique affiliate link.

As long as sales improve, I’ll extend that 60% commission for future months. (I may even try a slightly higher commission, later.)

Please don’t spam people with affiliate links.  However, you can use your affiliate link in most forums, in your emails, in your blog, and so on.

For more information, see the Affiliate pages, linked at the top of this webpage.

Branford Magazine theme is a free WordPress theme. It was created by Michael Oeser using elements of the Mimbo and Revolution themes.

To save readers of Sites that Soar! time and frustration, I’m creating my own modified version of Branford Magazine theme.

The first variation, Branford Magazine – Aisling variation 1, is ready for release. It’s based on Branford Magazine 2.0.

Here’s what I’ve changed.

• The stylesheet is modified from Branford Magazine 2.6. Links are underlined, but in black text. Space is added around images in posts and pages.
• There are just two tabs at the top of the page: Lead Article and Recent Posts.
• The sidebar includes “More from this category” and “Browse categories.” It does not include any advertisement space. You can use Widgets (in your dashboard’s Appearance > Widgets) to add more content, or manually add content in any WYSIWYG editor.
• The footer includes links to Sites that Soar and BranfordMagazine.com, as well as the original Branford Magazine, Mimbo and Revolution.

HOW TO DOWNLOAD AND USE THIS THEME

To download your copy, right-click on this file name and save it to your hard drive. http://www.branfordmagazine.com/downloads/branfordmagazine-aisling1.zip

To use the file, unzip it with any zip/unzip program such as WinZIP, and upload the theme to your WordPress files in wp-content > themes. Then, activate it in your WordPress dashboard, in Appearance > Themes.

Important note: There may not be a preview image when you activate this theme variation. Activate it anyway. This theme variation has worked fine at the three websites where I tested it, but it may have a few bugs in it.

(This is a “beta” version and will remain one because I don’t write code, I tweak it through trial-and-error.)

That said, you can always use this variation as a starting point and tweak it to meet your needs.

Remember, this is based on an older version of Branford Magazine. So, you will need to use relative URLs in your Custom Fields. (See more info, below.)

Also remember that I do not provide support for this theme variation. It’s free and my attempt to be helpful. However, I don’t write code. I can’t tell you how to further modify the theme, or how to fix something that you don’t like. (I recommend experimenting, trial-and-error, just as I do.)

HOW TO CUSTOMIZE YOUR THEME

You can customize this theme following the tutorial on the original Branford Magazine site, DER-PRiNZ.com or at Darren Hoyt’s Mimbo website.

For more complete customizing instructions, you can purchase my 150-page ebook, Sites that Soar! Or, you can find some tips at my Sites that Soar support site.

IMAGE URLS IN CUSTOM FIELDS

In this theme varation, you’ll continue using relative URLs for images in your Custom Fields.

Relative URLs look like this: 2009/2/yourimage.jpg

If you need more information on this, see my book or read When homepage images don’t show up.

IF YOU HATE IT

If you try this theme variation and don’t like it, simply overwrite the files with any other version of Branford Magazine that you prefer. You can find them at the Downloads tab at BranfordMagazine.com.

AN ALTERNATIVE TO THIS NEW THEME

If you’d rather keep your existing, older version of Branford Magazine, but have underlined links, you can use a new stylesheet with your current theme. Follow my instructions at Old Theme, New Stylesheet.

IS THIS LEGAL?

This is a legal modification of the original Branford Magazine theme.

The original Branford Magazine theme is a free WordPress theme created under the Gnu General Public License. The terms of this license include the following terms.

“You may modify your copy or copies of the Program or any portion of it, thus forming a work based on the Program, and copy and distribute such modifications or work under the terms of Section 1 above, provided that you also meet all of these conditions:

a) You must cause the modified files to carry prominent notices stating that you changed the files and the date of any change.

b) You must cause any work that you distribute or publish, that in whole or in part contains or is derived from the Program or any part thereof, to be licensed as a whole at no charge to all third parties under the terms of this License…”

The change notice is in the Stylesheet, and this theme is free and also licensed under GPL.

(This means you can further modify the theme and distribute it as well. Let me know if you do, so I can link to it.)

You can.  It’s a free program!

You’ll find more information in the links at the top of this page.  (Click on “Affiliates” in the navigation bar, and you’ll see a series of other pages in the drop-down menu.)

Let me know what else you could use to earn more as an affiliate.  I’m happy to help as much as I can!

However, I’m using the newest (2.6) Branford Magazine stylesheet with it.  I’m doing that so my links are underlined and easier for visitors to find.

Obviously, this combination works and can give you the best of both worlds.

Here’s what to do if you’d like to try this at your website using the older version of the Branford Magazine theme:

1. In your WordPress dashboard, to go Appearances > Editor.

2. Replace your current style.css code with the code from the new stylesheet. (If you need a copy, right-click to download it here:  http://www.SitesThatSoar.com/misc/style.css In it, I’ve renamed the theme “Branford Magazine variation”.)

3. Click “Update File” to save your new stylesheet code.

4. The screen will suddenly say something like, “The requested theme does not exist.”  DO NOT PANIC!  (The screen will look like the following screenshot.)

5. Go to Appearance > Themes in your WP dashboard.

6. Re-activate your Branford Magazine theme.  Click on it in your themes list, and then click where it says something like “Activate Branford Magazine theme” in the upper right corner of the theme preview screen.

7. Your Themes screen might say that your theme is now Branford Magazine variation (or Branford Magazine 2.6  2.6).  That’s because the stylesheet says it is. Do not forget that you’re actually using the earlier Branford Magazine theme!

ALTERNATE METHOD

If you aren’t able to use the Editor in your Appearance section, or if you’d rather use FTP to overwrite your current style.css file, you can do that instead.

1. Download the Branford Magazine 2.6 theme, or download my copy of the style.css in it. (http://www.SitesThatSoar.com/misc/style.css )

2. In FTP, open your Branford Magazine folder.  That’s at wp-content > themes > branfordmagazine.

3. Upload your new style.css file.  When your FTP program asks if you’d like to overwrite (or replace) the older style.css file, say yes.

4. If necessary, reactivate your Branford Magazine theme, as explained in Steps 4 – 6, above.

VARIATIONS

People have asked me if they can make their links appear in the classic blue color of links.

The answer is yes, but you may not like the results. (I didn’t, when I tried it.)

IMPORTANT: Read this entire section before you make any changes!

If you’d like your links to appear in a different color, that’s the same color you’ll see for your sidebar links (Categories, Recent Posts, etc.).

In your new style.css, look for this section of the Hyperlinks part of your CSS code:

a:link, a:active, a:visited {
color:#333;
text-decoration: underline;
}

Change it to the following.

a:link {
color:blue;
text-decoration: underline;
}

a:active, a:visited {
color:#333;
text-decoration: underline;
}

At most of my websites, that looks ugly.

I compromise by changing the code.  Now, the links are black and underlined, but if someone hovers their cursor over the link, the link turns red.

Here’s how I did that.

Look for where it says:

a:hover    { 
    color:#333;
    text-decoration: none;
    }

Change it to:

a:hover	{
     color:red;
     text-decoration: none;
	}

If you’d like to download a stylesheet that already has those changes made, right-click on this link: http://www.SitesThatSoar.com/misc/style-redlink.css )

All you have to do is link to the Sites that Soar sales page, using a unique affiliate link that you’ll download (free) at E-Junkie or Clickbank.

See our Affiliate links in the navigation bar, above.

Or, simply visit E-Junkie

https://www.e-junkie.com/affiliates/?cl=13015&ev=b806d355d3

Sign up (it’s FREE) and use your affiliate link when you tell people about this book.  Post it at your blog, at forums, in your emails… anywhere that you usually visit, online.

For more information, see the Affiliate information pages, linked in the navigation bar above.

In it, I use screenshots from WordPress 2.7 and I include tips for the newer version of Branford Magazine.  (The biggest change for webmasters is the use of full URLs for images.)

My new book is the same price as the previous edition ($17) but it’s more than twice as big.  The new book is a full 150 pages, loaded with screenshots to show you how to customize your website.

I’ve also added new chapters on subjects such as widgets, how (and what) to backup, changing your screen name, adding new plugins within WordPress, how to modify plugins, using the WordPress “Edit Themes” screen, and a lot more.

I show you — with screenshots from Adobe PhotoShop — how to change the header graphic.

I also show you — with screenshots from WordPress — how to find your Category ID numbers to customize your homepage.

(In addition, I provide lots of homepage screenshots to banish any confusion about which graphics have which names.)

This book will save you hours of work and frustration.  Order your copy at http://www.SitesThatSoar.com/

The book is 150 pages and full of step-by-step screenshots.  I’ve added many new chapters covering topics such as widgets, automatically installing WordPress, how to use the Edit Themes screen, and more.  The screenshots are all from WordPress 2.7.

The new affiliates program is online, and I’ve created a new sales page as well.  Tell your friends about this book and earn 50% commissions!  (Register and get your affiliate link, free, at https://www.e-junkie.com/affiliates/?cl=13015&ev=b806d355d3 )

In addition, I’m working on different versions of the Branford Magazine theme.  As an Open Source project, it will be free.

(Now that I see how complete the new book is with screenshots, I’m not sure that a video series is necessary.  For now, that idea is “on hold”.)

This new edition of my book is a very complete guide to installing, customizing and using the Branford Magazine theme.  I’m proud of this new edition of Sites that Soar, and I think you’ll really like it.

Order it at: http://www.SitesThatSoar.com/