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Here’s the beginning of a series on developing and designing a Facebook fan page on Ministry Vault blog:

Facebook Fan Page Design

Related Posts?:

1. Facebook Jihad
2. -Facebook as an Outreach Tool

WordPress 3.0 is suppose to be faster, leaner, meaner, and safer yet you can supposedly power one blog or 10 million from one installation. See the video tour above. However, when the opportunity came to upgrade my WordPress blogs on Thursday, I only did my ‘Testsite’ to see ‘what if’.

Re: Testsite

While we are at it, let me tell you about my ‘testsite’. I have a testsite blog that I use to see how new plugins, apps, and new themes work before I make changes on any of my regular blogs. The testsite is blocked from search engines even though it is on the Internet. It has been a real help over the years and has kept me from making fatal errors on any of my 10 WordPress blogs.

WordPress 3.0

The upgrade went well on the testsite so on Friday morning I began to upgrade all of my WP blogs from 2.92 to 3.0. This ended up being the fastest upgrade with the least trouble I have ever done. It was one click and Literally less than one minute per blog, what a surprise!

3.0 is a major update and in the past I have always experienced some kind of trouble in upgrading and was ready for a day of it. However, this went way faster than I anticipated. 10 blogs, 10 clicks, in 15 minutes and I was in blog heaven.

Initial Impressions

Everything is working so far so good. Usually with a major upgrade some of my plugins, themes, or apps end up giving me some trouble but so far this has not been the case though it is still early.

I really like the one click new feature that allows you to upgrade a number of plugins all at once. What a time saver with all of the new upgrades coming on line in response to the new version.  

The new notification and upgrade system in place for themes is great but also is a real pain if you have some themes that you are never going to use but have to upgrade just to clear the ‘upgrade’ note off the dashboard. I have found it just as easy to go to the theme menu and delete the unneeded theme rather than to upgrade something I’ll never use anyway.

Note that if it is a theme you are using, any upgrade could eliminate the custom changes that you have made to the theme. Fortunately, WP 3.0 reminds you of that fact before you click on theme upgrade button. A very useful notification and reminder indeed!

I will spend the weekend exploring some of the new features so maybe there will be more to come on the new WP 3.0.

Here’s a link to the WP info site on the new 3.0 version. 

Related Posts?:

1. Re: WordPress 2.8 Upgrade
2. WordPress Users Check This Out!!!: Older WordPress Versions Now Under Attack!

Here’s a checklist from DailyBlogTips to use before you hit the ‘Publish’ button and send that new post into the blogosphere:

1. Did I read the post after writing it?

2. Is the post as complete as it could be?

3. Did I research the related keywords?

4. Did I craft the title carefully?

5. Did I proofread it?

6. Did I link to one or more of my older posts?

7. Did I link to external resources when appropriate?

8. Did I make sure all links are working?

9. Did I credit any sources I might have used?

10. Did I include an enticing image?

11. Did I optimize the permalink?

12. Did I add one or more elements to engage readers?

13. Is this a good day for traffic?

Go to the article and read what the author- Daniel Scocco has to say about each one of the points on his checklist. It is a very helpful list.

Response: This is an important issue that can really affect your credibility. Careless mistakes and missing or broken links leave a bad impression with your readers. In fact poor editing can actually detract from the message itself.

One good idea is to have blogging friends or family members check out your posts and be honest. Many times another set of eyes will see stuff that you may have missed.

How many times have you discovered typos and missing or misused words in posts that you have already published? It still happens to me. However, it doesn’t happen nearly as often as it use to since I have developed my own pre-publication checklist.

For some reason I always seem to see the mistakes better after it is published. I have made considerable progress in this area by using the ‘previewing’ feature in my editor and seeing what the published post will actually look.

My current ‘pre-publication checklist’ is far more elementary than the one above. I suggest that you develop your own—here’s mine:

1. Spell Check the first draft

2. Proofread and rewrite

3. Come up with an interesting and relevant title

4. Provide links to sources

5. Find a relevant image

6. Links to previous articles on the subject

7. Add keywords and categories

8. Use ‘Preview’ feature and do a final proofing.

9. Publish and check it out.

10. Make panic changes (What I’m trying to eliminate)

*Top

Related Posts?:

1. Updating or Changing Posts?
2. Some Thoughts on Blogging Etiquette

Here’s an article at Tutorial9 that compares the speed and reliability of the most popular Caching plugins for WordPress:

“WordPress Caching: What’s the best Caching Plugin?” by Kyle Robinson Young

It is a comprehensive analysis of best caching plugins. Interestingly Young also presents an effective ‘do it yourself’ alternative. In his conclusions he finds that Hyper Cache or W3 Total Cache are best available and perform far better than the old standbys -WP-Cache and WP Super Cache.

Why is ‘caching’ important?

It increases the loading speed of your site.

It is particularly useful as your traffic increases and will come in real handy if you ever have a post go viral. A Good caching plugin can make your blog ‘digg’ or ‘Stumble’ proof.            *Top

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• Speed Up Your WordPress Blog with W3 Total Cache (wpjedi.com)
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Self published and available in PDF form and as a ‘spiral bound’ book. The two authors really know what they are talking about when it comes to the WordPress blogging program. Good for beginners all the way through to advanced. Something for everybody.

Best part is that ‘free updates’ are included in the purchase. Initial price seems high till you take that into consideration. WordPress is constantly changing and these guys will keep you on top of any new versions when they come.

<<Here’s a link to where it can be purchased>>

Also here’s a link to the best review of the book that I have found –at BloggingPro: “WordPress Book Review: Digging Into WordPress”              *Top

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1. Book Review: “WordPress 2: Learn WordPress the Quick and Easy Way”
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(Image via CrunchBase)

Blogger has offered the same old Templates for years, even after the Google takeover. While custom templates have always been available, the offering from the official Blogger site has always been extremely limited especially when it’s compared to TypePad or WordPress.

Now there’s a new template designer tool from Blogger which offers a far greater variety and makes a way for greater creativity and uniqueness—take a look:

*Top            

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There are over 350 million folks on Facebook and it is still growing exponentially. It has incredible potential as a vehicle for outreach.

Here’s an excellent article from Digital Evangelism Issues on using Facebook in ministry. It addresses various current issues and has links to helpful training:

“Facebook outreach and training”

*Top

Related Posts?:

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“3 Ministry Podcasting Options with WordPress”

He looks at and rates the PowerPress and Sermon Browser plugins and then presents a ‘no’ plugin WordPress option. Also deems the PodPress plugin as dated.

Some good info here for WordPress folks wanting to get into podcasting.            *Top 

Related Posts?:

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On Wednesday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared in a speech that unrestricted Internet access was a top priority of the Administration. In the process she took on China and a number of other countries around the world including Egypt for the recent cases of Internet censorship.

In her speech Secretary Clinton built stressed the importance of “Three Internet Freedoms”:

1. The right of all peoples to have access to an uncensored Internet.
2. The right of individuals to exercise free speech on the Internet
3. The right of businesses and other organizations to have access to uncensored information on the Internet in order to compete fairly.

Response: Wow, this is way more understanding and wisdom than I would have ever expected from Washington. Especially since some rumors had the Obama Administration looking for way to take control of the Internet using security as an excuse.            *Top

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• China scolds U.S. over Web censorship issue (news.cnet.com)
• China Says U.S. Internet Accusations Harm Ties (nytimes.com)
• Google and U.S. vs. Chinese Censorship (abcnews.go.com)
• Clinton to Urge Uncensored Internet Amid Google-China Dispute (businessweek.com)
• China Says Clinton Harms Relations With Criticism of Internet Censorship (nytimes.com)
• China to Clinton: Back Off! (thenextweb.com)

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1. -Google vs. China on Internet Censorship
2. Lies on the Internet from Christian Sites?

Google email accounts were presumably hacked by the Chinese government in December. Since the victims were primarily Chinese human rights activists this resulted in a strain between Google and the Chinese government.

Now Google is saying that they may quit China over censorship of search results.

For once Google is on our side. China is known to have a wall of censorship in place limiting search results and access to Christian sites around the world.

It is said that nearly 340 million Chinese use the Internet so the implications are huge. The government’s penchant for control is well known and Yahoo along with Google have been criticized in the past for going along with some of the Chinese regulations and requests.            *Top

Related Posts?:

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