This is a good move for WordPress.  They are slowly but surely getting everything under one umbrella making it easier for everyone to find what they need. Another benefit for all of us is that the themes will now be checked to make sure they meet some requirements before they are added.  No more falling in love with a theme only to find out that it doesn’t work!

Since it was only released 2 days ago, there aren’t a lot of themes there yet, but you can bet that it will fill up quickly with lots of great themes that work.  Check it out and keep visiting for more great themes.

Registration will be opening soon but in the meantime, go to WordPress2.0 to get notified when registration opens as well as getting a few free goodies just for being interested.

This is going to be a great class.  More details will be released over the next few weeks but get on the notification list because seating for this class will be limited.

My friend, Jeff Herring, over at The Great Article Marketing Blog has a great blurb on submitting articles to article directories and is it a waste of time in his post titled Article Marketing Tip of the Week.  (Hint - it is not.)

Go check it out for some excellent, realistic advice on articles, directories, and blogs.

Dean’s FCKEditor -

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/fckeditor-for-wordpress-plugin/

I know I said GoDaddy is the one with MCE problems but what I read was that it is ‘primarily’ GoDaddy.  One of our listeners had the same MCE problem and he is NOT on GoDaddy.  So - if you lose your editing icons and ‘Use The Visual Editor’ is checked in Users -> My Account, get this editor plugin.

 The Advance Tiny MCE Editor is at - http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/tinymce-advanced/

 I still prefer this one because it is so cool but if you lose editing icons altogether, use the first one!

 Here is the WordPress link for WP-Sticky - http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-sticky/

It might be easier to find here than at LesterChan.net.  Both are the same plugin.

And don’t forget to check out the new Google Keyword tool.  See the previous post for that one.

Enjoy!

As with all things Google, I will investigate this more deeply and report my findings to you.

Right now I am getting ready for The Wizard Weekly - coming up in just under 2 hours.  Head on over and join us today when we talk about Enhancing Your Blog.

You’ll be glad you did!

Yesterday’s Wizard Weekly call was about the little known about but very important WordPress Database.  We had some excellent comments and questions that time did not allow to answer so I will answer them a few at a time here.

1.  I wonder: is there anythng we might have to do, say if the database is messed up somehow?

You can go to the MySQL database tab in CPanel and for each database there will be a ‘Check’ and ‘Repair’ button.  Click on ‘Check’ to see if any problems are reported and if there are, click on ‘Repair’ and the database will try to repair itself.  Other than that – the data inside phpMyAdmin is editable but I wouldn’t go there alone!  It’s a very scary place!  It’s fine to go look but when you are modifying stuff in there it is frightening.

The good news is that bad stuff rarely happens to the database itself.  Sometimes the connection breaks but the data is still there.

2.  When hackers get into a site, is it the database they hack?  And what can they do and how to prevent it?

Vulnerability – everything is vulnerable.  There are hackers out there who write stuff to ‘inject’ stuff into your database.   I’m always on the lookout for stuff like this and will report on it when I find it to be valid.  So far – nothing earth-shaking has come up because wp itself is really pretty secure.  Stuff happens when you use plugins and themes from unfamiliar (and unverified) places.

 ‘is it the database they hack?’  Not generally – they put weird code into the program files to make things redirect or look bad.  The database is really fairly secure – unless you upload stuff that has an ‘injector’ in it.  That is prevented by checking what you want to upload.  How – google the name of the ‘thing’ and see what you get.  ONE nefarious report is all it takes for me to put it on my ‘do not use’ list.

 Two excellent questions - more in days to come.

 I know I stressed the importance of backups so here is the url to get wp-db-backup -

 http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-db-backup/

 Please get this very important plugin, install it, activate it, and USE IT.

Please join me tomorrow on The Wizard Weekly.  Sign up just to the right of this post to get all the details.  Or if you see this on Twitter - go to http://www.TheWordPressWizard.com for sign up details.

What is it?  The paralyzing inability to write one more word on your blog.
How do you know if you have it?  Here are some of the symptoms she lists:

• You wonder if you have enough plug-ins and start surfing the web for more.
• You Google everyone who leaves a comment on your blog to see if they are incarcerated.
• You read your spam folder. Twice.
• You Google relatives you haven’t heard from in a while to see if they are incarcerated.
• You follow every Twitter link
• You subscribe to more RSS feeds than your total number of blog posts.
• You hand-write encouraging letters to your incarcerated friends and relatives.

Go to her blog to read about the four-step program that “has been proven effective in reducing or eliminating the symptoms of Blogger Block.”

Laugh every day!

Of course, he’s talking about articles but go read his post with your blog in mind too. And - your blog post doesn’t need to be 300 to 500 words! If you have a 300 to 500 word article, you have a LOT of fodder for blog posts. Depending on how many ideas are in those words, you can get from 2 to 5 blog posts!

Head on over to:

Article Marketing Tip of the Week - How to ‘Get Smart’ with Your Articles & Recession Proof Your Business

Read it thinking about articles AND your blog. Leave a comment. And come back and tell me what you think!

Blog On!