WordPress, the software that powers the vast majority of blogs in the world, has released version 2.8 of its software.
While we don’t normally cover WordPress updates here, this one was a bit different for us as it was the first time we could use the automatic upgrade that they built in to version 2.7. I have personally been using the software since around version 1.5 or so, and I have always dreaded upgrade time because it was tedious and nerve racking to do it by hand. It was never a good time and one I would put off as long as possible.
Well, it was do or die time with the new version, so I clicked on the banner at the top of my blog admin section that took me to the update section, told it to go ahead and start, and… that’s it? It was over so fast that I was shocked. It was painless, fast and over before I could even blink. This of course doesn’t mean it would always be painless, but boy was this ever a lot more pleasant.
It’s difficult to believe, but StarterTech.com is already one-year-old!
In the midst of all out other blogging this week, we totally missed our own birthday! StarterTech launched on April 12th, 2008, and what a quick year it was! In celebration of this we thought we’d do a little variation on our usual “Top 5 Posts Of The Month” posts, and take a look at what the five most read posts of the past 12 months were.
What Is Remote Backup – So glad to see this post as #1 because everyone should back up their systems in some way, and remote backups are our favorite method! This is also the type of post we created this blog for as we feel everyone should be able to understand the ever changing world of technology.
What Is Google Desktop -This is another one of those pieces of software out there that you hear people talk about, but you aren’t quite sure what it is, or what it does. There is no shame in that, and that’s what we’re here for.
Twitter Privacy Breach Found -It is never comforting to think that your private communications are out there for the world to see, and it happened on Twitter not all that long ago. Luckily they fixed the problem fairly quickly, but it was still pretty unsettling to think about.
Here is looking forward to many more years to come, and, as always, if you have something you would like to see us cover here, make sure to drop us a note!
Google Reader just got a lot more interesting for those people who share a lot of stories.
In an interesting move by Google, users of their Google Reader product that share stories with other people can now hold conversations about those stories via built-in commenting. Up until now, only the person sharing the story could make a comment, but with this new additional feature, anyone who is in your sharing circle can join in on the conversation. All one needs to do to participate is look for the “Add Comment” link at the bottom of each share story. The discussion will then appear below the story for others to see.
According to the Official Google Reader Blog, you will also be able to use this new feature from your iPhone so you can even comment on the go.
While it is an interesting idea, I have to agree with Adam Ostrow of Mashable and Duncan Riley of The Inquisitr when they express concerns of how this may steal comments and click-thrus away from blogs. Mr. Ostrow worries about the fact you can not currently import these comments into your blog, so it is like lost conversations. Mr. Riley also has a valid point in that if something impassioned you enough to make a comment about it, why should you bother clicking through to the site now to make it when you can get just as much satisfaction from doing it right there in Reader? There is going to have to be some way for comments to move and back and forth between your blog and Reader, or else you will see a lot of full text feeds being cut down to snippets to get people encouraged to visit the blogs again.
This is an interesting idea, but I’m just not sure if it was completely thought through on how it might impact the bloggers who create the content that is the life’s blood of Reader.
ShareThis has launched version 2 of its popular social sharing widget.
As we described it in What Is ShareThis, this widget has become a popular way for web sites to ease the shaing of their content around the web on their users. Well, the redesigned widget seems to have eased it even more, and streamlined the process. Now you can import your contacts which will allow you to have more ease in emailing the item to other users, a scrolling window for al of the different social networks, will remember the last three email address you used and a whole lot more.
For right now the new version is only rolling out slowly to select site, but will be out to all partner sites within weeks, and webmasters need to do nothing. The changes will take place automatically, and then you can go back and customize it in any way that you would like.
Blogs all over the world today are participating in something called Blog Action Day, but what is it exactly?
Blog Action Day is a nonprofit group that came up with the idea of getting bloggers all over the world discuss one subject on the same day each year. The theory is that this will increase the conversation around the chosen subject and make people more aware of the issue being addressed.
For the first year the subject was living a green life, and this year, the second for the movement, the subject is poverty. As of this writing there are 11,735 participating sites this year, with an estimated reader base of 12,551,800, there is no denying that this is certainly a way to get a subject out to a large audience.
While major blogs are involved, there is certainly nothing wrong with a small blog with only a few readers also participating. Not only are you writing about a good cause, but you also gain some exposure for your site.
It may be too late for you to jump on this year’s cause, sign up for their mailing list to receive notification of when they prepare for 2009!
Google BlogSearch has added a new feature this week thatisn’t actually new on the web, but due to their omnipresent stance, could prove to become the leader.
Sites like TechMeme and Technorati already keep track of what is being discussed on the web, but they both are limited in their scope. TechMeme is somewhat selective in who they track, and Technorati required you to tell them that your blog exists, while Google BlogSearch will eventually find you just from it’s ordinary search checking.
The new feature will be useful for those of you who are trying to blog at least once a day and ened up getting stuck for a subject. Stop by here, see what inspires you, and could quickly be adding to the conversation for that subject on the Web.
One caveat to this, ReadWriteWeb is already reporting a spamming problem has popped up on the system. Teach yourself to look out for these types of posts and avoid discussing them.
Lots of online stores have a link at the bottom of their pages about “affiliate programs”, but what exactly does that mean, and why should you care?
We touched on this briefly in How To Monetize Your Blog, but it seemed worthy of being brought up again.
Essentially you sign up for the program of the site you choose to work with, accept their terms, and then you can begin inserting the links or banner ads on your site. While you earn no money for people just viewing the ads, you do earn money if they click on the ad and then make a purchase from the site.
Due to the need for two actions to take place for you to earn money (the reader clicks the ad, the reader makes a purchase from the site), it can be difficult to trule make a lot of money from this system if you only work at it casually. For affiliate programs to truly start generating a lot of money for a blogger, you need to make a niche site that will mean the visitors to your site are going to be more inclined to click on targeted ads to begin with. (Say you start a blog about wine, it might not make sense to join the affiliate program for car parts, but it would make perfect sense to join one for a site that sells wines)
While you can hunt for sites that offer such programs, a good share of large companies are now using third party companies to run their affiliate programs. You may want to start by looking at companies such as LinkShare.com or CommissionJunction (yes, we belong to LinkShare, but not CJ) that offer you chance to sign up for multiple programs at once, or pick and choose from just a few.
As with any ads you may run on your blog, make sure your blog host allows advertising before you begin inserting any!
The WordPress app for the iPhone and iPod Touch has finally been released.
For those of you with a WordPress powered blog, this will allow you to access your admin section, edit posts, upload photos and even publish new posts to your site from the convenience of your device. You will need to be running firmware 2.0 for the Apple handsets, and your blog will need to be running version 2.5.1 or higher of the blogging software to take advantage of the new app.
The nice thing is you can also manage multiple blogs from just one installation, so this is a dream come true for people with more than one blog as there always seems to be something that needs to be checked on at least one of them.
While typing an entire blog post on one of these devices would certainly not be ideal, it is a perfect management tool and a nice way to make quick updates if necessary. Oh, and best of all… it’s free! So, what are you waiting for? Download it and give it a spin.
I originally did not plan on making this into “Blogging Week”, but it just turned out that way. So, now as I am getting into more advanced subjects related to it, what would you like to know about? Picking a theme? How to do Search Engine Optimization? Blog promotion? Let us know! We’re probably going to take a short break from blogging for a while as this is a general technology blog, but we will be coming back to this, that I promise.
To catch up with what we did this week, here are all the pieces
This is one of the oldest of the free hosting options, but it has very much fallen on to hard times as it has been over run with “splogs”. A splog is a blog with the intention of doing nothing but spreading spam, quite often from using the RSS feeds of other blogs.
This unfortunately has led to a bad reputation for the company, but it is still an excellent beginners platform for people who want to try their hand at blogging. It is not a very robust system, but you can customize the look with templates.
LiveJournal has more of a feeling being an online diary than most other hosts out in the marketplace. It encourages making friends and reading what they post via your Friends page. It is somewhat like an internal RSS system, but it is limited to being kept inside of the site.
Like Blogger, it is a good place for one to start off and get their feet wet in the idea of blogging, but it is not a solution for someone that wants to grow their blog. They do offer different levels of membership with free journals supported by advertising, or you can pay for an ad-free account which also gives you more options and more storage for photos.
This can be somewhat confusing, but we will try our best to explain it. WordPress.com is for people who wish to use the WordPress software without having to find their own hosting account and maintain the updates. This is not to be confused with WordPress as a blogging platform you use on your own web site.
The WordPress.com version is for people who are more serious about blogging, but you will be limited by in your number of plugin choices, number of template selections and they also do not allow you to put any form of advertising on your blog.
The problem that all three of these options share is the odd domain names you will be stuck with. For instance, your WordPress address would be http://username.wordpress.com: it is unwieldy, unattractive and just not a good idea for your site if you want to blog seriously. If you have any intention of taking your blog further than your friends and family, then a unique domain name will be a must, and this is something you usually can only get by going with a dedicated web host.
If you still want to just get your feet wet, or you are only intested in blogging for your friends and family, the three listed above are a good start, or you can choose from one of the many other free blog hosts out in the market place.
WordPress, the software that powers the vast majority of blogs in the world, has released version 2.8 of its software.
It’s difficult to believe, but StarterTech.com is already one-year-old!
Google Reader just got a lot more interesting for those people who share a lot of stories.
Blogs all over the world today are participating in something called 
Lots of online stores have a link at the bottom of their pages about “affiliate programs”, but what exactly does that mean, and why should you care?
The 
I originally did not plan on making this into “Blogging Week”, but it just turned out that way. So, now as I am getting into more advanced subjects related to it, what would you like to know about? Picking a theme? How to do Search Engine Optimization? Blog promotion? Let us know! We’re probably going to take a short break from blogging for a while as this is a general technology blog, but we will be coming back to this, that I promise.
WordPress
