JoeBailey.ORG

Installation link: http://wasabi.pbwiki.com/Related%20Entries

Total time 45 minutes (I had to make a database adjustment)

The installation went like normal until…. I set it up, activated the plugin. Then I wasn’t sure what to do.

So, I looked at the site, and didn’t see anything. So, I explored a little to see what was actually changed. Under plugins, I found a new navigation option called “Related posts options.” I started to make some changes and noticed that at the bottom of this page, I had to update my sql index table. Specifically, there is also a message stating “If this is your first time installing this plugin you will have to run this script (opens a new window) in order to create the index table required by the plugin. If this fails, please refer to the readme on how to create it manually.”

So, I had to do it manually. It’s not a good feeling to do this manually. Essentially, I had to login to my database control tool and run the following sql statement. The script succeeded, but I was unsure when making edits to the database.

ALTER TABLE `wp_posts` ADD FULLTEXT `post_related` (
`post_name` ,
`post_content`
)

Well, I didn’t really have to install recent comments. It is installed. In order to actually use it, it only took a couple of steps.

1. Log in as the administrator
2. Click on the Presentation tab at the top
3. Next, click on the “Widgets” option
4. At the bottom of this page, I dragged the “Recent Comments” widget over to my sidebar.
5. Hit Save

That’s it. A little voice in the back of my head is thinking that I’ll be here more often. I also noticed that the sidebar does not show on every page, so, something is missing from my configurations.

I held off on this one until I get associated with Text Link Ads. I have a funny feeling that this type of interface may already be incorporated into WordPress. I’ll find out at a later time.

Experience
Well, this was the best experience I’ve had so far with an installation. In fact, I didn’t even have to install it. So, off to the next task.

Requirements
I must have a widget ready theme. Note, if you have WordPress version 2.2 or later, you don’t need this. See the note in the upper right of the installation page.

Installation
When I arrived at the installation page, I was confronted to install and download for WordPress 2.0.x or version 2.1.x. Ah, which one do I have? At this time, I have Version 2.3.3. Here’s how to find out what version you have of WordPress.

How to determine what version of WordPress is installed
1. Log in as the administrator
2. If you have my version, look at the very bottom of the first page. It shows the Version!

Link for the installation:

http://automattic.com/code/widgets/

On a completely separate note, I added some generic links from some of my other sites to this site. Of course, no other visitors have arrived except myself. So, we’ll see what happens.

As I viewed the statistics for some of the other sites, which are not optimized at all, I did realize something. On two different sites, I had one article that was gathering visitors. Since no one really comes to the site, it appears that each article is producing about 10 visitors a day. Which, is not bad. I can easily see how one blog can become popular very fast. Here’s my “pie in the sky logic”. If I can write at least one good article/blog a week, that would be 520 visitors a day in one year. To me, that sounds like a lot. So, that would be 520×365 = 189800 visits a year. I’m not sure how this multiplies out when it comes to revenues, but, it does appear to be a ton of potential.

Before I begin, Google Analytics is now tracking the site. As of right now, I had one visitor, ME. So, we’ll see how it goes. It sounds like I need to get some SEO going.

This one seemed a little trickier than normal. Of course, I had to make a backup and copy over an extra file. That’s not a lot of work. But, like a good boy, I was going in to test it and make sure it was functioning correctly. Here is where I ran into some issues.

First, I realized that people had to login and register to add a comment. Now, I’m a little guy, but I’m assuming no one is going to register on my site a day one. Maybe, but not likely. So, this took some investigating.

If you want people to make comments on your blog without registering, it’s easy. First, log into the admin. next, click on “Options” in the top navigation, then select the “General” sub navigation at the top. When on the page, look 6 sections down and you will see the area for “Membership.” Simply uncheck the box for “Users must be registered and logged in to comment” and hit the Update Options button. That’s it.

It also seems like it takes a while to manage this blog. So, I started timing it. It took me approximately 20 minutes to type up this blog and install the new plugin. I’m estimating another 5 for testing purposes.

To install Brian’s Threaded Comments, please visit the following link:

http://meidell.dk/archives/2006/12/19/brians-threaded-comments-159/

Ok, this one is not in the list of things to install. As a programmer helping people market their sites, we always want to know how many visitors come to the site. The best software to track this information is Google Analytics, and it’s free. So, I took the leap to install Ultimate Google Analytics to see how the number of visitors to this site grows.

I’ll update the statistics to everyone every so often just in case. Today’s statistics just show me. So, we’re at ground zero with 1 visitor.

To install Ultimate Google Analytics, please visit:

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/ultimate-google-analytics/installation/

Overall, no issues whatsoever installing it. I can see where it would take longer if you, of course, don’t know Google Analytics.

For a while now, I’ve read about many bloggers, and for some reason John Chow’s site has intrigued me. Of course, the amount of money he is making per month peaked my interest. So, I decided to step into the realm of blogging.

For the upcoming future, days, weeks, months, however long it takes, I will be following his instructions set forth in his document “Make Money Online With John Chow dot Com.” My initial steps are to actually create the blog. On a daily basis, I’ll spend a predetermined time to edit this blog. Right now, my first steps are to configure this blog and install the necessary WordPress pieces. All the WordPress configuratoin changes I make are per his suggestions and will be tracked in the “Building a Blog” category.

Just like it says, the Top Commentators Widget displays the top commentators on your site. This widget can be easily added to your sidebar.

To install it, please go to:

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/top-commentators-widget/installation/

IMPORTANT: I’m a newbie, installation went hassle free. But, in the last set of steps, they ask you to drag the Top Commentators Widget onto the sidebar. Be VERY careful. I apparently dragged my widget on top of what was already there. So, this deleted everything I had in the side bar except the new widget. Don’t fear though, it was easy to add back everything I had. Not knowing what everything was, I ended up adding all of the widgets. This turned out to be a great learning experience, now I know what they do and how to edit the sidebar.

As simple as blogs are, for some reason, WordPress does not install or configure a default WYSIWYG editor. We normally refer to these editors as “What You See Is What You Get”. This allows me to make simple links and text formatting without writing HTML. For simplicity, I installed Simple WYMEditor. It seems to work pretty well, has a clean interface as well.

To install it, please go to

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/simple-wymeditor/installation/

Another step in creating the initial blog setup is to install Subscribe to Comments. According to Mark Jaquith here’s what it does: “Subscribe to Comments is a robust plugin that enables commenters to sign up for e-mail notification of subsequent entries. The plugin includes a full-featured subscription manager that your commenters can use to unsubscribe to certain posts, block all notifications, or even change their notification e-mail address!”

To get the download, go here because you’ll also see the installation instructions: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/subscribe-to-comments/installation/

The total amount of time it took to complete was about 5-10 minutes and that’s because FileZilla needed an upgrade. Extremely easy to install.