I keep six honest serving-men
(They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and When
And How and Where and Who.

(Hmmm….who among you would have expected to find Kipling quotes on a blog about WordPress? If this is your first visit, this type of thing is just another one of the value added services around here. LOL)

To an impressionable child with an insatiable curiosity, this was heady stuff!

Mrs. Williams said no essay, no question, really, was ever complete without addressing all six. That stuck with me.

So, when I think in terms of this blog’s readers, I realize that I would better serve you by giving you the whole story. So, we’ll try it out and we’ll see how it goes, ok? And, as always, your voice is heard through the comments. Don’t be bashful.

Who, What and Where

The ability to make a post “sticky” was introduced with WP 2.7 and is a way to keep a particular blog post showing as the first one on your blog (a.k.a. the most recent one.) Remember, blog posts are typically shown in reverse chronological order, meaning the most recent one shows first, the one before that shows next, and so on.

Why and When

Well, what if you had a reason to want a particular post to always show first? How would you do that? Previously, you’d always have to be monkeying around with the date or use a plugin. As of WP 2.7, this ability to make a post “sticky” is built in.

You might want a particular post to show first because it is an announcement of some sort, or it’s an explanatory post you want everyone coming to your blog to see first.

How

How you make a post “sticky” is really very easy.

There’s a setting in the Publish section, a check box labeled, “Stick this post to the front page” and you check it, update the post and there you are!

Easy peasy!

And how do you “un-stick” it when you no longer want it to be the first post?

Just uncheck the box, update your post, and it falls back into the flow of posts according to its post date.

Can you make more than one post sticky?

Oh yes…and they’ll order themselves according to their post dates. So, if you make two posts sticky, the one with the most recent date will show first, then the other one, and then the rest of the blog posts will show.

Note: This works on blog pages where the “normal” blog stream shows. It doesn’t affect custom home pages, magazine-style pages, etc.

Related posts:

1. What Are Categories and Tags and How Are They Used?
2. Should It Be a Post or a Page?
3. Blogs Aren't Just For Writers

The good news is Matt is a funny guy – very fun to watch/listen to. (Further proof that we geeky tech people really can have interesting personalities…) Which is a good thing because this video is 46 minutes long. But you will laugh your way to learning…promise. (If you’re reading through the feed, click the title of this post to come to the site to see the video.)

• Pagerank – what it is and how to get more of it
• Keywords – how to pick ‘em
• Permalink structure – which one to use and why (oh, I feel so confirmed!)
• How to get more people to link to you
• and the real, true, deep secret of blogging!

Related posts:

1. The Easy Way to Put YouTube Videos On Your WordPress Site or Blog
2. 13 Plugins Make My WordPress World Go ‘Round
3. Why WordPress?

O-M-G!! I’m in love with them both.

Then a few days ago, I noticed a new plugin called WPTouch that displays my site “iPhone-style” when I visit it using my iPhone. So, I decided to try it out. (See it over there in the picture? That’s THIS site as viewed on my iPhone.)

Nothing’s changed about how you view this site with a computer, but now, for iPhone, Blackberry, Android and other touch-enabled smartphone users, my site is a WHOLE LOT easier to navigate than with the theme you see here with your computer.

Here’s the skinny from the plugin page at WordPress.org:

With a single click, WPtouch transforms your WordPress blog into an iPhone application-style theme, complete with ajax loading articles and effects, when viewed from an iPhone, iPod touch, Android or BlackBerry touch mobile device.

The admin panel allows you to customize many aspects of its appearance, and deliver a fast, user-friendly and stylish version of your site to your iPhone, iPod touch, Android, Opera Mini mobile, Palm Pre and BlackBerry Storm visitors without modifying a single bit of code (or affecting) your regular desktop theme.

The theme also includes the ability for your visitors to easily switch between the WPtouch view and your site’s regular theme.

Install WPTouch (here’s how) and make navigating your site easier for touch-enabled smartphone users without changing your theme!

I’m off to install this on the rest of my sites. If you have a touch-enabled smartphone, or you want to make life easier for your readers who do, try it out and let me know how you like it in the comments below!

P.S. If you got the new iPad yesterday, this will work for it, too!

Related posts:

1. The Easy Way to Put YouTube Videos On Your WordPress Site or Blog
2. Self-Hosting Your WordPress Blog
3. Worry About Your Site Being Hacked? Use WordPress File Monitor to Alert You to Changes at Your Site

www.I-Can-Travel.com

Explore a broad range of handicapped-friendly travel opportunities and discover special cruises, tours and discounts. Learn how to plan your trip properly and what questions to ask before you set out on your journey. Make I-Can-Travel.com your “how-to” site and your first port of call before any destination so you can travel with confidence and fewer unpleasant surprises.

www.DivorcedHappilyEverAfter.com

Divorce is tough, but Marlene Clay makes it easier to get through by helping you and your ex communicate, co-parent and move on with peace. She walks her talk, having gone through divorce herself, and has created a new relationship with her ex that serves everyone involved – including the ex’s new wife. Though it takes two (or more) to make it work, Marlene can help you be the change you want to see.

www.WikiBuzzEvents.com

Leveraging the power of the Internet – social media and social networking – to make your event a success is just one part of what Chicago-based professional organizer, Cheryl Vargas, does for you through WikiBuzz Events. She gets you organized, too, so your business runs more efficiently, allowing you to gracefully handle all the new business the buzz she creates will bring your way.

www.BetterSchoolFood.com

Dr. Susan Rubin is the founder of BetterSchoolFood.org, a not-for-profit whose mission is to raise awareness of the connection food and children’s health, behavior and learning. For me, this project was great fun, and a great example of living and working in that sweet spot defined as the place where your deep gladness meets the world’s deep need.

Related posts:

1. New Sites – October 2009
2. New Sites – July 2009
3. New Sites – September 2009

So far, you might be thinking, “Ok, Suzanne…what’s this got to do with me? I can see just fine. Why are you telling me this?”

This particular accessibility feature just might be of handy use to you if a) your theme has several sidebars or b) you have lots of widgets in your sidebar or c) both. Drag and drop is great, but drag, scroll and drop gets a little out of hand and hard to manuever sometimes. So read on…

So, go to your Widgets page (Appearance => Widgets). See up there in the upper right hand corner of your Dashboard…’Screen Options’?

Click it.

You’ve got only one screen option for this page: ‘Enable accessibility mode’.

Click that link. It’s a toggle link, which means it’ll turn into ‘Disable accessibility mode’, so that if you want, you can turn that option back off.

Say you clicked on the ‘Add’ link for the calendar widget. The screen would then display the calendar widget options, and ask you which your sidebars you wanted it in, and in what position.

So you see? In this case, accessibility mode makes it easier for me to add widgets to my sidebars without have to scroll for miles on my widget page. If your theme is rockin’ this many sidebars, then you might find it easier to add widgets to them this way, too.

After playing with it in accessibility mode, I’ve determined that it’s much easier (at least for me, with this many sidebars) to add widgets this way and to move widgets around from one sidebar to another, but if I just want to reorder them within the same sidebar, it’s easier to do with drag and drop, so I just disable accessibility mode and do it that way.

Thanks again, Reagan, for the handy tip!

Related posts:

1. WordPress 2.8 is Available! (and my list of plug-ins that don't like it)
2. Find What You're Looking For Fast!
3. Should It Be a Post or a Page?

• YouTube

• Vimeo
• DailyMotion
• blip.tv
• Flickr (both videos and images)
• Viddler
• Hulu
• Qik
• Revision3
• Scribd
• Photobucket
• PollDaddy
• Google Video
• WordPress.tv (only VideoPress-type videos for the time being)

So, how exactly do you do it?

First, get the URL of the video. I’ll use YouTube as the example. The image to the right shows you where to find the URL for a YouTube video. (You’ll find that block on the right side of the page.)

All you need to do to embed something into a post or page is to post the URL to it into your content area. Make sure that the URL is on its own line and not hyperlinked (clickable when viewing the post).

For example:

Check out this cool video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTDNLUzjkpg

That was a cool video.

WordPress will automatically turn that into a YouTube embed when the post is viewed. (And for those of you who avoid the HTML editor like the plague, this works using the Visual editor, too.)

Pretty slick, huh? And easy, too!

Related posts:

1. How to Upgrade Your Plugins (and How to Know When They Need It)
2. The Easy Way to Put YouTube Videos On Your WordPress Site or Blog
3. How to Install Plugins You’ve Downloaded as .ZIP Files

Now, if that’s not incentive enough to upgrade, I don’t know what is! Have you upgraded yet?

Related posts:

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2. WordPress Security
3. Get Started Blogging at WordPress.com

While you can add both categories and tags on the fly, it’s a good idea to have at least a category structure in place at the outset. This requires some planning and forethought, yes, but hopefully you have done your foundational work before jumping in, so it shouldn’t be all that difficult to come up with a basic category structure for your content.

WordPress requires that every post be assigned to a category and comes with a default category called ‘Uncategorized’. If you don’t assign a category to your posts, WordPress will automatically assign it to ‘Uncategorized’. This looks kind of cheesy, to be frank, so it’s a good idea to rename the Uncategorized category to something else that is more appropriate for your content. Alternatively, you could leave it as is, and if you ever see ‘Uncategorized’ show up in a category listing, you know you’ve missed assigning a category to one or more posts and can fix them then.

Adding Categories

There are two ways to add categories. You add Categories beforehand by clicking ‘Categories’ in the Posts menu.

Category Name is exactly that. Category Slug is typically the uncapitalized, hyphenated version of the Category Name. So, for example, if you create a category called WordPress Tips, the Category Name will be WordPress Tips and the Category Slug will be wordpress-tips.

Unlike tags, categories are hierarchial. You can create sub-categories of any of your categories by assigning a parent category. All posts assigned to any sub-category of a parent will show up in the archive listing for that parent category, but only posts assigned to the sub-category will show up in an archive listing for that sub-category.

Category descriptions do not display by default, though some themes do display them. If your theme does not display category descriptions on the public part of your site, you can still use them as “notes to self” and enter a description as a reminder of what kinds of posts belong in that category. The category descriptions do display in the category listing, so this can be a quite handy way to document your thinking when creating your category structure.

Categories can also be added “on the fly” by clicking the ‘Add New Category’ link in the Category section of the post edit screen. Note: When adding categories this way, the slug is created for you, and the description is blank. You can, however, assign a parent category.

Use only one category per post. This is considered best practice for two reasons. First, it is less confusing for your readers, and second, you avoid potential duplicate content issues with the search engines.

Adding Tags

There are two ways to add tags. You add Tags beforehand by clicking ‘Post Tags’ in the Posts menu.

Tag Name is exactly that. Tag Slug is the uncapitalized, hyphenated version of the Tag Name. So, for example, if you create a tag called Must-Have Plugins, the Tag Name will be Must-Have Plugins and the Tag Slug will be must-have-plugins.

Tag descriptions do not display by default, though some themes do display them.

Tags can also be added “on the fly” by typing the tag and clicking the ‘Add’ button in the Post Tags section of the post edit screen or by choosing from the most used tags in Post Tags. Note: When adding tags this way, the slug is created for you, and the description is blank.

Use multiple tags per post. Use tags to identify sub-topics covered in the post. Tags can cross Category boundaries and provide additional ways to “drill down” into your content and keep your visitors on your site longer. You can still do effective SEO on your site without using catgories or tags.

Related posts:

1. DIY SEO: Step 5 – Make Navigating Your Site Easy
2. Sticky Posts and The Six Ws
3. Should It Be a Post or a Page?

www.DrSusanRubin.com

Creating better health is easier than you think. Dr. Susan Rubin is a holistic nutritionist and leader in the world of food and health, as well as a mother of three. Her specialty is helping busy moms create better health for themselves and their families. She also helps people with cancer and other chronic illnesses thrive, not just survive.

www.CoachSteveGunn.com

New Year’s resolutions are usually short-lived attempts to fix problems by will power. Instead, join Coach Steve Gunn and take small sweet steps, get great support and succeed with meaningful goals.

www.WellnessTalkRadio.com

Wellness Talk Radio with Kris Costello is an Independently Produced Program dedicated to Broadcasting interesting, inspiring and honest information to help people create lives of wellness and health.

www.GretlClaggett.com

Gretl Claggett is a writer, speaker and workshop leader whose mission is to help others create more authentic lives: personally and professionally. Here on her site, she offers a selection of her essays and poetry and her soon-to-be-published book.

Related posts:

1. New Sites – May 2009
2. New Sites – November 2009
3. New Sites – June 2009

Light gray is the default background, and now available are medium and dark gray, blue (light, medium and dark) and green (light, medium and dark.)

Have you created your sales page/email squeeze page/affiliate product landing page yet? No need to change themes or hire me – check out what Deborah has to say about WP Sales Page:

I SO love this product I feel compelled to write a testimonial. I am truly not skilled by any stretch of the imagination in anything remotely computer-esque. And beyond that I’m mostly afraid that one wrong move or mouse click and my website will turn into a chaotic mess of unreadable words or disappear altogether. So my confidence level about being able to do it myself wasn’t high.

But I did need to put up a sales page and do it quickly, and in one of those lovely moments of synchronicities, announcement of the WP Sales Page product arrived that very day. I took a chance and I’m really happy I did.

It is so easy to use, with instructions that are clear, complete, and totally understandable. The beauty of it is that there are examples of what things will look like; you choose what you’d like, and then simply copy and paste the HTML code. Everything I needed to put up a sales page was included. I was absolutely able to do it myself, in a very short time, without any help, with no frustration, tears, or hair-pulling. None! I can’t tell you how delighted I am. I’m absolutely recommending this to everyone I know.

Deborah Weber
Feel Good Energy Shift

Get your copy of WP Sales Page today!

Related posts:

1. Sales Pages in WordPress? Yes, You Can!
2. DIY SEO: Step 2 – Page Title, Page Description and Keywords
3. Should It Be a Post or a Page?