As I looked into the new upgrade I found where “Multi-Site” was now a part of the upgrade or what WordPress calls WPMU allowing you to run multiple Blogs from a single installation of WordPress. Oh man, not good! I have always felt that Multi-Site was a security risk of the highest order. I have a ton of Blogs out there in the Blogosphere and you have to find them to knock them down. I’ve got them pretty well scattered. But with Multi-Site, if you get hacked, someone can take the whole thing down.

Sorry, I got a little carried away with that one. Multi-Site is available with WordPress 3.0 and forward, but is disabled by default, so you have to activate it to get it to work. If you don’t want to activate it you can just install one Blog per WordPress Installation. It takes some hard coding to get it to work, which is very good, so that you don’t activate it by mistake. Because if you do activate it by mistake, you can’t go back and de-activate it. So you have to be right on.

So let’s take a look at what is involved. To activate WPMU you will need to add this code to your “wp-config.php” file in your home directory or root file:

define(‘WP_ALLOW_MULTISITE’, true);

You will want to add this line of code to your “wp-config.php” file at the very beginning of the file like this:

<?php
/**
* The base configurations of the WordPress.
*
* This file has the following configurations: MySQL settings, Table Prefix,
* Secret Keys, WordPress Language, and ABSPATH. You can find more information
* by visiting {@link http://codex.wordpress.org/Editing_wp-config.php Editing
* wp-config.php} Codex page. You can get the MySQL settings from your web host.
*
* This file is used by the wp-config.php creation script during the
* installation. You don’t have to use the web site, you can just copy this file
* to “wp-config.php” and fill in the values.
*
* @package WordPress
*/

// ** MySQL settings – You can get this info from your web host ** //
/** The name of the database for WordPress */

You can add this code after you install WordPress if you like or before installation, it does not really matter …… One note of caution though, do not activate any plug-ins until you are finished setting up your Multi-Sites Network.

Once you have added this code you will need to go to your WordPress Dashboard > Tools > Nework, which then brings you to the “Create a Network of WordPress Sites” screen. Select your desired options then select “Install” and remember that this process is irreversible.

Your next screen will be the “Enabling the Network”. You will need to make some additional changes to you “.htaccess” and “wp-config.php” files. Once you are finished, just save your changes and log-off and then log back in and you will now see a new menu bar for “Super Admin”. This new menu will let you add sites and configure.

If you get into trouble with various plug-ins after you have enabled your network, you can reverse the process of installation, but why bother, you would just have to remove the Blogs that you installed under WPMU. It is really much easier to start over with a fresh install or forgo the use of the offending plug-in.

For those of you that are wondering why the line of code to activate the WPMU is not already written in your wp-config.php file like you sometimes see with other bits of code. Someone can and undoubtedly will mistakenly enable (True) the multi site option which will make changes in whole WordPress installation. So to avoid accidental “enabled multi site” option, WordPress team haven’t included it in your “wp-config.php” file.

I would like to offer a very special thanks to Imran Yousaf for his assistance in helping me to define the finer points of installing “WPMU”. You will find many helpful tips and tricks over at his very fine Blog. I highly recommend it.

First “NoFollow” is an attribute which tells the bots of the world which links in the comments section are worthy to follow and which are not to be followed.  Unfortunately you can’t provide this information yourself,  WordPress does it for you automatically.  And it is always set at “NoFollow”.

There are a number of plug-ins that deal with this issue but I prefer a “hard code” to avoid a lot of junk in the trunk.

As I stated above that “NoFollow” is an attribute.  There is no such thing as a “DoFollow” attribute.  There is ………. well nothing!  I usually use “friend” as my attribute within my code to make my Blog a “DoFollow” Blog. However you can you use anything you want really.  So you can use “DoFollow” or “friend” or “Spamin’ Sammy”  because the bots only see one thing “NoFollow” or nothing.  So whatever you wish to place in between the quotes is good with the bots, they will follow any link so long as “DoFollow” is not present.  The potically correct way to do things however is to just leave the quotes empty.  So you would be looking at “NoFollow” in your line of code.  And you would change this to ” “.  That’s right, nothing!  However it makes finding things a bit diffuclut for me so I just put “friend” in my code.  I told you this post would be hard to follow! Now ……….. where to put the code!

Your edit takes place in “wp-includes > formatting.php”  The edit is shown below and can be found on about line 1290 or so of this file:

function wp_rel_nofollow_callback( $matches ) {
$text = $matches[1];
$text = str_replace(array(‘ rel=”nofollow”‘, ” rel=’nofollow’”), ”, $text);
return “<a $text rel=\”nofollow\”>”;

The nofollow Attribute can be found in a number of files and in a number of locations within those files.  But just stick to the edit below and you should be fine.

You Blog will now automatically follow all comments that you approve. Two points to remember:
1. Do Not add another attribute to the comments when and if you edit them. This will cause the bots to “NoFollow” the comment link.
2. When you go to upgrade your WordPress Version. The upgrade will overwrite the edit that you placed in the formatting.php file.

Now, I was confronted with having to come up with my own design code. I’ve seen some tricky code before, but this takes the cake! I spent 40 hours trying to hammer out the details over three days, seriously backing me up on my Blogs. When finished I got ready to use the code for a post over here at Blogging Extreme only to be over-ruled by the editor stating that I had spent so much time refining the thing, that I should now place it on the Blog as an E-Book. Man, ……… I’m wasn’t even ready to do that! 20 hours later, here I am. READY; SET; DOWNLOAD!

You can now download from the homepage, the price is $9.95. I’ve run several tests on the coded instructions and they work fine. It does assume that you have some basic experience with GIMP. Once you play around with the coded instructions for a couple of hours, you will see how it easy it is to do whatever you want it to do. I’ve really just laid the ground work, with some improvisation, you should do just fine.  You can really design any type of E-Book with any type of back ground; any size you want.

As for now, the manual does not cover how to design round CD’s or multiple books in one image.  As I have the time, I will update the manual to include these types of images. If you have an hints or tips on the subject, be sure to leave your comments below.  And yes, I did do the image you see on the homepage with these same instructions in the manual. Pretty cool, huh!

Here it is: When editing a “Draft” you have the ability in WordPress to Preview these changes, as you are logged in to the admin area, in the preview you will notice the word “edit” next to the date and your name. When you press this edit to clean up your copy you will open a new tab in firefox or a new browser window in Explorer. Now it only does this one time, however you now have two tabs or two browser windows open for you to edit in. Once you save in one, you will not be able to save in another. The trouble is, when you hit the preview button and after reading your post you decide to edit and hit the edit link, you should be forced to back-up, like hitting the back button on the tool bar of you internet browser, not the ability to open a new tab or new browser window. Man, ………. I seen some bugs, but this is a killer.

After I had work through my copy and realized my problem, I was like four hours doing this post, and I was forced to stay with it, because I was looking at a deadline.

Once you publish your post and you decide to edit that post, you still get this behavior with WordPress. I’m sure there is a work around, I just don’t know it yet. I just wanted to get this info to you as soon as I realized the problem. So, do yourself a huge favor and when you hit the “Preview Changes” button; after you are through editing, just turn off the tab or window!  If you know of a work around, leave a comment and help us out, please. Thanks. See you next week!

When looking to add your URL to your Twitter feed,  it makes sense to drive home the name of the blog instead of a string of numbers along with the fact that the search engines really don’t like Tiny URL’s.  So I came up with this solution that by-passes the Plug-In route, (I need another Plug-In like a hole in the head).  So ……. try this;  the theory is pretty straight forward, first go to your “Dashboard” in the Admin Area of your WordPress Software.  Then go to “Settings” and click on “Permalinks” and go to “Common settings” and click on “Custom Structure”.  Add this code:  /%postname%/ …… now click “Save Changes”.

I usually like to see the whole URL of my post to show,  meaning;  site name, category, post name.  The Permalink “Custom Structure” looks something like this: /%category%/%postname%/  If yours is set-up in a similar fashion you will have to drop out the /%category%/  Of course it does not effect function,  you just won’t see it show up in the URL of your blog.

Now when you add your URL to your Twitter feed,  you no longer have to add:  http://bloggingextreme.com/what-i-did-on-my-summer-vacation

You simply add this:  http://bloggingextreme.com/what

That’s it.  Now,  if you have two posts that start with the word “what”,  WordPress will seek out the earliest post. If that is not the post that you want, you will have to add another word or letter.

Like this:  http://bloggingextreme.com/what-i

Get it ?  Good ! ………. Nuff said !  If this doesn’t work for ya ……. sorry,  I tried !  You’re back to the alphabet soup thing. 

I’ve got an update.  Since I published this post. Allan over at iwoodpecker.com passed along this killer tip to the above.  You can actually go with a numerical system if you want.

Like this: http://bloggingextrme.com/p0001

That way you don’t have to worry about two posts that start with the same word.  Just remember,  to avoid the number showing up in the post title, edit at the perma-link level and don’t forget to place the  “p”  in front of the number.

Thanks Allan!!! Great Tip!

While I’m pretty sure that the codex is a lost cause, I have hope for WordPress TV. Video after all is the going rage these days for the blogger. However, while working with WordPress TV I have noticed some bugs that you should be aware of.

I just can’t put my finger on it. How is it that the WordPress software is bullet proof, but the support is so weak? I just don’t get it. I digress !

One of the cool things about WordPress TV is the ability to actually embed the video inside your post. Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Youtube this ! But WordPress TV is at least a little better in quality than the other video services that allow you to embed. To control traffic to their sites some of the better one’s don’t even let you embed. So to have a good quality video to embed inside your blog about blogging is like kinda cool.

When you reach the video that you want to embed, you will see the word “embed” in the top left of the video. Once you click on the control menu button, you will see a drop down menu that gives you several choices. Unfortunately, those choices don’t include anything that will fit your template more than likely, so you will have to adjust the dimensions in the embedded code.  I’ve provide the code so that you can check out the dimensions change.

<center><embed src=”http://v.wordpress.com/wp-content/plugins/video/flvplayer.swf?ver=1.15″ type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” width=”585” height=”400” allowscriptaccess=”always” allowfullscreen=”true” flashvars=”guid=NBZ853Xn&amp;width=400&amp;height=224&amp;qc_publisherId=p-18-mFEk4J448M” title=”Introducing WordPress 2.9 Carmen”></embed></center>

The “Copy To Clipboard” thing is kinda cranky too, so be patient. It doesn’t always want to copy or paste for that matter.

Here it is for those who need a quick look see:

When you’re done your footer should have the following appearance at the bottom of your blog.

Have at it Kids and Good Luck !

Step #1

The first thing to do is to register the widgeted footer areas in your theme’s functions.php file. Using the Lifestlye theme as an example, here’s what the code looks like right now:

if ( function_exists(‘register_sidebars’) )
register_sidebar(array(‘name’=>’Sidebar Top’,'before_title’=>’<h4>’,'after_title’=>’</h4>’));
register_sidebar(array(‘name’=>’Sidebar Bottom Left’,'before_title’=>’<h4>’,'after_title’=>’</h4>’));
register_sidebar(array(‘name’=>’Sidebar Bottom Right’,'before_title’=>’<h4>’,'after_title’=>’</h4>’));
register_sidebar(array(‘name’=>’468×60 Header Banner’,'before_title’=>’<h4>’,'after_title’=>’</h4>’));

And here’s what it will need to look like to register the additional areas:

if ( function_exists(‘register_sidebars’) )
register_sidebar(array(‘name’=>’Sidebar Top’,'before_title’=>’<h4>’,'after_title’=>’</h4>’));
register_sidebar(array(‘name’=>’Sidebar Bottom Left’,'before_title’=>’<h4>’,'after_title’=>’</h4>’));
register_sidebar(array(‘name’=>’Sidebar Bottom Right’,'before_title’=>’<h4>’,'after_title’=>’</h4>’));
register_sidebar(array(‘name’=>’468×60 Header Banner’,'before_title’=>’<h4>’,'after_title’=>’</h4>’));
register_sidebar(array(‘name’=>’Footer #1′,’before_title’=>’<h4>’,'after_title’=>’</h4>’));
register_sidebar(array(‘name’=>’Footer #2′,’before_title’=>’<h4>’,'after_title’=>’</h4>’));
register_sidebar(array(‘name’=>’Footer #3′,’before_title’=>’<h4>’,'after_title’=>’</h4>’));
register_sidebar(array(‘name’=>’Footer #4′,’before_title’=>’<h4>’,'after_title’=>’</h4>’));

Step #2

The second thing you’ll want to do is establish the proper style for the widgeted footer area. Because most StudioPress theme’s footer areas are defined as “footer”, I’m going to define the main “div” for the widgeted footer area “footer-widgeted”. You’ll need to add all of the CSS shown below to style.css, but I’ll break them out so you can see what each section is. Make sure if you’re theme’s width is less than 960px, you’ll need to adjust that below.

Main Container Styling

#footer-widgeted {
width: 960px;
margin: 0px auto 0px;
padding: 0px;
}

Paragraph Stlying

#footer-widgeted p {
color: #333333;
font-weight: normal;
margin: 0px;
padding: 0px 0px 10px 0px;
}

Hyperlink Styling

#footer-widgeted a, #footer-widgeted a:visited {
color: #333333;
text-decoration: none;
}
#footer-widgeted a:hover {
color: #333333;
text-decoration: underline;
}

Unordered List Styling

#footer-widgeted ul {
list-style-type: none;
margin: 0px;
padding: 0px;
}
#footer-widgeted ul li {
list-style-type: none;
margin: 0px 0px 10px 0px;
padding: 5px;
}
#footer-widgeted ul ul {
list-style-type: none;
margin: 5px 0px 0px 20px;
padding: 0px;
}
#footer-widgeted ul li li {
list-style-type: square;
margin: 0px;
padding: 0px;
}
#footer-widgeted ul li ul li {
margin: 0px;
padding: 0px 0px 3px 0px;
}

Widget Headline Styling

#footer-widgeted h4 {
color: #333333;
font-size: 16px;
font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Verdana;
font-weight: normal;
margin: 0px 0px 5px 0px;
padding: 0px;
}

Widget Styling

#footer-widgeted .widget {
background: none;
margin: 0px;
padding: 5px 0px 0px 0px;
border: none;
}

Widget Columns Styling

.footer-widgeted-1 {
width: 215px;
float: left;
margin: 0px;
padding: 20px 20px 5px 10px;
}
.footer-widgeted-2 {
width: 215px;
float: left;
margin: 0px;
padding: 20px 20px 5px 10px;
}
.footer-widgeted-3 {
width: 215px;
float: left;
margin: 0px;
padding: 20px 20px 5px 10px;
}
.footer-widgeted-4 {
width: 215px;
float: right;
margin: 0px;
padding: 20px 0px 5px 0px;
}

Step #3

Last, you’ll need to add the proper code to your footer.php file. Most StudioPress themes are coded similarly, so this should work. Inside your theme’s footer.php file, look for this code:

<div></div>
<div id=”footer”>

Essentially, you’ll be placing the code below in between the two lines you see above. As a result, you’re code should look like this:

<div></div>
<div id=”footer-widgeted”>
<div>
<ul id=”footer-widget-1″>
<?php if ( !function_exists(‘dynamic_sidebar’) || !dynamic_sidebar(‘Footer #1′) ) : ?>
<li>
<h4><?php _e(“footer-widgeted #1 Widget”, ‘studiopress’); ?></h4>
<p><?php _e(“This is an example of a widgeted area.”, ‘studiopress’); ?></p>
</li>
<?php endif; ?>
</ul>
</div>
<div>
<ul id=”footer-widget-2″>
<?php if ( !function_exists(‘dynamic_sidebar’) || !dynamic_sidebar(‘Footer #2′) ) : ?>
<li>
<h4><?php _e(“footer-widgeted #2 Widget”, ‘studiopress’); ?></h4>
<p><?php _e(“This is an example of a widgeted area.”, ‘studiopress’); ?></p>
</li>
<?php endif; ?>
</ul>
</div>
<div>
<ul id=”footer-widget-3″>
<?php if ( !function_exists(‘dynamic_sidebar’) || !dynamic_sidebar(‘Footer #3′) ) : ?>
<li>
<h4><?php _e(“footer-widgeted #3 Widget”, ‘studiopress’); ?></h4>
<p><?php _e(“This is an example of a widgeted area.”, ‘studiopress’); ?></p>
</li>
<?php endif; ?>
</ul>
</div>
<div>
<ul id=”footer-widget-4″>
<?php if ( !function_exists(‘dynamic_sidebar’) || !dynamic_sidebar(‘Footer #4′) ) : ?>
<li>
<h4><?php _e(“footer-widgeted #4 Widget”, ‘studiopress’); ?></h4>
<p><?php _e(“This is an example of a widgeted area.”, ‘studiopress’); ?></p>
</li>
<?php endif; ?>
</ul>
</div>
<div></div>
</div>
<div id=”footer”>

That should do it. If your footer came out looking like a can of worms,  sorry,  try again.  Patience will win the day with this one!

Pull up your CSS and paste this code into the “Content” area at the bottom (it will be easier to find if you need to edit in the future):

.follow-me {

background: url(http://www.your-web-site-name-goes-here.com/images/twitter.png) no-repeat left center;

padding: 2px 0px 2px 20px;

}

You’ll now need to upload a “twitter image” to your images or media library on your server. Be sure to watch the size of your image. Or better yet grab this image below and you can mess around with it later if you want to. Just get up and running now.

Next edit your themes index.php file; look for the content call:

<?php the_content(__(‘Read more’, ‘studiopress’));?><div></div>

Immediately after, place this code:

<a href=”http://twitter.com/username”>Follow Me on Twitter</a>

Remember to change the word “username” above with the username of your Twitter Account and that should do it.

One note of caution. If you do not have an “index.php” file edit your “single.php” file instead. You will have the same result. See ya next week !

Blogging for a dollar is not rocket surgery, it comes down to driving traffic to your website and converting that traffic to sales. Nuff said !

When considering what it takes to achieve this goal, first and foremost I guess you need to write pretty good; you will need a good blogging platform and the skills to manage it. You will also need some marketing skills and you will have to do the SEO thing, whether you like it or not. When I started out this was the most challenging area of blogging for me. It is my hope that I can provide you with some focused ideas so that you can maintain your sanity.

Thanks for stopping by !