A link to this article just popped into my email inbox, subject line: Why single keywords are for losers. And before I'd even processed it, I got an icky feeling and then I got defensive. Before I'd even started reading, while I was still considering deleting the email unopened, my mind was running ahead, imagining reading some sneering "guru" who was going to tell me my hard worked-out strategy was wrong. It wasn't the words - though "loser" is never a good word - so much as the tone that set the expectation that I was about to be called stupid.

That's not a good feeling to give your readers and potential readers. Let's assume you have good advice to give: you have a choice - good advice + making your audience feel good, or good advice + making your audience feel stupid. Someone who's being called stupid is on the defensive, and someone who's on the defensive isn't open to hearing what you have to say, they're too busy defending themselves. So your good advice is going to fall on deaf ears, and that's a waste of everyone's time then.

Don't call your readers losers. They're reading you, after all.

If you don't see the upgrade link on your dashboard yet, go to Tools > Upgrade and use the link from there.

The short answer is no, Twitter Tools will only send the automatic notifications of a new blog post to ONE Twitter account. And that's one Twitter account per WordPress install, not one Twitter account per blogger.

The easy way around that is to use Twitter Tools to automatically publish to one Twitter account, and something else to publish to another. I like Twitter Feed, which will publish not only to Twitter, but to Facebook as well, and has various bits of customisability, including whether you publish title and content or just title; post prefix ("New blog post: ") *and* post suffix, which can be useful for adding hashtags.

The neat thing about this set up is that you can publish two entirely different feeds. For example, with TameBay (which has multiple authors), I might want to publish *all* posts to @TameBay, but only the ones I've written myself to @blogmum. So for the latter, I'll use the author RSS feed rather than the "all posts" one.

And if you're publishing to more than two Twitter accounts, Twitter Feed will let you publish as many feeds to as many accounts as you like.

No, not sex when you're married: I'm talking about blogging. And I'm guilty enough of the accidental blog hiatus myself. In fact, it seems to me that guilt is the primary emotion felt by those who haven't written in a while. "Oh, I should blog something," they tell me, "I feel bad I haven't written in so long."

Guilt is a pretty pointless emotion at the best of times, but with regard to blogging, it's just unnecessary. There isn't some Deity of Blogging who'll smite you with a copy of the Problogger book and cast you down to Blogspot if you haven't accessed your WordPress dashboard in a week. It's all a matter of getting into the habit again.

1. Make a committment
Don't just sit around, watching your page views and your RSS subscribers decline. Decide you're going to get going again. Decide you're going to write, and be specific: how often?
2. ...but not one you can't stick to
At this point, deciding you're going to write three posts a day is unrealistic. Make a committment you know you can stick to. One post a week, maybe. Increasing post frequency is easier later, when you're back in the habit of writing *something*.
3. Make a list
One of the biggest problems bloggers seem to have is feeling that they should be writing something, but having nothing particular to say. Create yourself a list of topics or titles, things you know you've got something to say about and that will be exciting to write.
4. Get some posts half-drafted
I love having a stock of posts mapped out, that can be finished off in less than an hour. It's been a life-saver for me when I'm writing on someone else's schedule, and really helps you keep going when you feel like your pen is broken and you'll never write so much as a cheque again. And working on more than one post at a time can help distract you: if *this* one isn't working, then *that* one might.
5. Don't, whatever you do, write an apology for not blogging
"Sorry I haven't blogged for a while but..." Yuck. My readers aren't sitting around wondering why I haven't written, and I'd hazard a quid or two that yours aren't either. If you're starting up your blog again, make sure you're saying something useful.

I like to edit my WordPress theme's footer so that it automatically updates with the new year. Here's the code if you want to do the same:

&copy; <?php bloginfo('name'); ?> 2008 - <?php echo date("Y"); ?>

Obviously you'll want to change the first date to the year in which you started blogging.

WordPress 2.9 now has an "upgrade all plugins with an available upgrade" feature, so you can upgrade everything in one click, rather than having to do them all... one... by... one... Bizarrely, the feature has been hidden in Tools > Upgrade rather than put on the plugins page, so lots of people aren't going to spot it. Hopefully that could be changed in a future release.

In the meantime, *you* know, faithful reader, so happy upgrading.

You will need: the WP Holding Page theme; the Theme Test Drive plugin, and of course a WP install.

Install and activate the above. Basically, we're going to use the theme to show everyone else a holding page, and the plugin to ensure that signed-in admins can see the new theme and content we're working on.

Change the WPHP options to show the holding page messages you want. The nice thing about this "theme" is that it doesn't show ANY WP posts, so if you're working on content, you can publish it and see what it looks like without anyone else being able to see it.

Now we need to make sure that you can see the "real" theme. From the dashboard, go to Appearance > Theme Test Drive Options, select the theme you want from the drop down menu and click "enable theme drive". From this point, you'll be able to see the theme you just picked, but anyone else just surfing in on your blog will see the holding page.

When you're happy your blog is ready to face the world, then click "disable theme drive" on the TTD Options page, enable the theme you really want to use from Appearance > Themes, and you're done.

In order for Akismet to work properly, you'll need to grab an API key from WordPress.com. That's right, from WordPress dot com, even though you have a self-hosted WP blog. Here's where to find it:

• You'll need to sign up for an account with WordPress.com first.
• You'll have the option to get a free WP blog, or just a user name; if you're only signing up to get the API key, then the latter will be fine.
• Once you've got your account, sign in,
• and navigate to My Account > Edit Profile (currently on a drop-down menu from the top left).
• Your API key is at the top of the profile page.
• Add it to your self-hosted WordPress blog under Plugins > Akismet Configuration.

What if you have more than one blog? WP API keys will work on as many blogs as you want them to. And if all this WordPress.com and self-hosted WordPress stuff has you confused, this post should help.