It seems YouTube has been compromised. A script that is inserted into YouTube comments redirects the user (any user that views either the video or comments pages) to another website where a disgusting video plays. The exact nature of the website is unknown however it has been suggested that it can steal session cookies. Obviously there is also a potential risk for account theft, and infection by viruses and malware. I would strongly advise you avoid the website completely until this issue has been rectified.

Clearly things can go wrong online, so it pays to be aware and prepared. Recently Cindy had to undertake a ‘spontaneous blog vacation’ (as she put it) after her WordPress installation was compromised. The problem here seems to be that WordPress wasn’t updated when new versions were made available. This is a problem I’ve experienced with one of my websites in the past. Fortunately starting a new WordPress installation is fairly straight forward however if you haven’t backed up your blog you will lose all your content. You wouldn’t leave your only copy of your manuscript outside on a windy day so why risk your blogging content?

How To Export Your Blog

While logged into the WordPress dashboard, locate the Tools: Export option.

You will be then presented with the export screen. Here you have the option to restrict your export to specific blog authors (assuming your blog has multiple authors). This might be desirable if you had a communal blog but now want to set up separate sites for each author. For the most part however you’ll just want to leave it as ‘All Authors.’

Click on ‘Download Export File.’ A dialogue like this one will show up, however note that the look of this window will vary slightly from browser to browser. Make sure you select the option to ‘Save File.’ Give the XML file a meaningful username – especially if you have multiple blogs – but leave the date stamp intact. This will help you determine which backup is most recent at a glance if you have multiple backup files for the same blog.

Remember to back up often. If you couldn’t tolerate the thought of losing all the work you’ve done between now and your last back up take this as an instruction to back up right now.

Make multiple copies of your back up XML files. If your only backup is on your computer and something happens to your computer, then it’s all been for nothing. Consider keeping copies of your backup files. Put them on a CD or an External hard disk or a USB stick. Email copies of your XML files to your ‘cloud’ email account. Better yet why not save them to your Dropbox and have your essential files synced between all your computers? The 2GB option is free.

Realise your contribution to the Internet is important enough to take seriously and protect. Happy blogging and happy backing up!

Related Posts:

• Backup Automatically And Remotely With Dropbox
• Basic WordPress Blogging Tips
• WordPress Changes Lives
• Adding Sidebar Widgets In WordPress
• The Blogosphere: Part II

I sometimes assume if I know something then it must be self-evident to everyone, but this is obviously not necessarily the case. I thought I would include some tips for people who are new to the WordPress platform.

Separate Tags With Commas: If you look at the WordPress dashboard you’ll see a reminder of this advice but it is still sometimes ignored. Tags are a helpful way of searching for specific information within your blog. If you maintain a blog about rock and roll music people will be able to click on the tag ‘Elvis Presley’ for example and see all the blog posts relating to Elvis Presley. However if you don’t include commas between your tags as you enter them all the tags are treated as one entry. ‘Elvis Presley’ as a single tag is meaningful, ‘Elvis Presley Carl Perkins Blue Suede Shoes’ all together is garbled, confusing and not very helpful.

Think About Your Categories: Starting a blog can seem a little daunting at times, especially if you don’t know exactly what you want to write about. I actually think it’s quite natural for blogs to evolve over time – so don’t lose sleep if your blog takes on different dimensions as it develops. But thinking about what subjects you want to write about up front gives your blog a focus in the beginning. Listing blog entries under the ‘Uncategorized’ default category is lazy and doesn’t help your reader understand the entry subject matter. It’s a missed opportunity from a search engine optimization perspective too. [You can't delete the uncategorized category but you can change it. Consider what your most blogged subject will be and change the category name and category slug. This will save you time in the long run.]

Create Meaningful Permalinks: The URLs that WordPress produces for your individual blog entries can be either pretty or ugly, generic or meaningful. Search Engines find a URL with relevant keywords in it more meaningful than a number. By default, WordPress produces permalinks that look like this:

http://www.domain.com/?p=2028

You can customize them however you like, personally I like to use a /%category%/%postname%/ format.

http://www.johnlacey.com/blogging/basic-wordpress-blogging-tips/

Use absolute – not relative – links when linking to external resources: If you link to Google for example from your blog entry and type in ‘www.google.com’ browsers will assume it’s a relative link. It will produce something that looks something like this:

http://www.johnlacey.com/blogging/www.google.com

http://www.google.com

Remember you’ll learn by doing… so get started. WordPress is a great platform and whether you’re using WordPress.com or self-hosted WordPress it’s a powerful tool that will help bring your ideas to the world. Happy blogging!

Related Posts:

• Backup Your WordPress Blog
• WordPress Changes Lives
• Adding Sidebar Widgets In WordPress
• The Blogosphere: Part II
• The Blogosphere: Part I

I adore WordPress.

It is such a far cry from the hand coded pages I created ten years ago. Back then, in an attempt to streamline my workflow, I would make page templates – essentially HTML files that included a header and a footer and some information about the way the page would be formatted. It saved some time though I still had to manually upload each page. It made adding new content an awkward time-consuming process. Even after I had added a new page I would have to go back to the front page of the website and add the link there, perhaps with a thumbnail, perhaps with a brief description.

WordPress is celebrated also for its ability to present information in Search Engine-friendly ways.

I confess I had never really considered WordPress in terms of its accessibility. I just discovered a wonderful video from Glenda Watson Hyatt on how WordPress as a platform and blogging more generally as a channel of communication have changed her life.

Related Posts:

• Backup Your WordPress Blog
• Basic WordPress Blogging Tips
• Adding Sidebar Widgets In WordPress
• The Blogosphere: Part II
• The Blogosphere: Part I

I was recently asked how to change the sidebar in the atahualpa3 WordPress theme.

The easy answer is through the use of widgets. However I have also made a PDF explaining this process in greater detail with lots of pictures to help along the way.

You can download it below.
Adding Widgets To Sidebars In WordPress [PDF]

You will need Adobe Acrobat (or similar) to read this document. Don’t forget you can right-click and select “Save File As…” to save this file to your computer.

Hope this helps!

Any wordpress questions? Leave a comment or talk to me on Twitter.

Related Posts:

• Backup Your WordPress Blog
• Basic WordPress Blogging Tips
• WordPress Changes Lives
• Jessi Alexander On “The Climb”
• The Blogosphere: Part II