Archive for: weblog

Wordpress 2.8 Releases in Beta

WordPress Testers and early adopters can now download Wordpress 2.8 and test the new features that promise to make WordPress better and more powerful than before.

There are lots of new features in WordPress 2.8 that are really interesting. Here are a few user features you can look out for

  • New Theme Installer routines
  • Add CodePress syntax highlighting to Theme and Plugin editors
  • Use “Custom Header” for menu text and revise Default theme to reflect change
  • Separate Comments into a separate postbox, from Discussion postbox, on the Edit Post screen
  • Make tags accessible without Javascript on the edit screen
  • Don’t ask for confirmation when marking a comment as spam
  • Don’t notify post author of own comments
  • Allow the dashboard widgets to be arranged in up to four columns as set via the Screen Options tab
  • Add column “Rating” in Administration > Links > Edit
  • Improve installer to help people entering wrong email addresses
  • Per Page option for plugins
  • Show absolute date instead of relative date for scheduled posts
  • Autosave post/page when pressing Control/Command+S
  • Add toggle all button to the Gallery tab in the uploader
  • Support more than one gallery on the same page
  • Add per page option to Screen Options for comments, posts, pages, media, categories, and tags
  • Show Tools menu for all users so they can access Turbo
  • Fix most popular link category list
  • Add description field for tags
  • “Choose a city in the same timezone as you” for Timezone in Administration > Settings > General
  • In upgrade process, provide better explanation for database upgrade message
  • Enforce unique email addresses in Add/Edit users
  • Hide things that need to be available to screen readers via offscreen positioning
  • Use invisible class for hiding labels and legends
  • Use a semantic class name for text targeted to screen readers

Download Wordpress 2.8 Beta 1 now and try it out. Since its a beta release, don’t try it on your primary blog.

HHTimesheet: Web Based Time and Expense Tracking Software

HHTimesheet is a new web based time and expense tracking software solution. HHTimesheet is aimed to increase your visibility over the health of your projects and facilitate the budget estimation and cost control.

Features of HHTimesheet include tracking time and log expenses, timesheet approval, iphone support, reporting and it all being web based.

HHTimesheet is very simple to use and has a great interface. Currently HHTimesheet is offering a free 30 day trial and then it is only $0.70 per weekly timesheet. Additionally they have an option of contacting them direct and actually purchase the tool as a piece of software and hosting it on your own dedicated server.

hhtimesheet

How To Make My Blog Stand Out From The Crowd?

Yesterday I was having a great conversation with Marshall Kirkpatrick (Vice President of Content Development at RWW, not sure what that means) about how to get your blog noticed in the current environment. The discussion started with me posing the basic question “how can I get my blog noticed because we seem to be producing very good content but not getting the rewards”?

It was first mentioned that Problogger is the best source for this information on the web, however I have been reading his site for many years now and most of the content seems to be getting a little reproduced. Additionally, Problogger talks a lot about social media and how to use it to your advantage, but these days everyone has been reading those articles for year and most bloggers use StumbleUpon, Digg, Mixx, Buzz and other very proficiently. If most bloggers are using these tools to their advantage then you still have the same issues, how to stand out from the crowd?

I know that here in Europe a blog that has been on the rise lately is TheNextWeb, but I know these guys have been writing that blog for several years now and they also have one of the best technology conference on the mainland of Europe. Therefore if I want to improve my readership it is a little difficult to just start a conference, or is it worth adding some add-ons to the site such as job board, marketplace or others?

Content is also a major player in this issues, cause most good bloggers say that content is king. However, I think that content is king when you are either a small blog or a large blog, but definitely in the middle content isnt king and it is all about promotion and push.

This is main problem with web 2.0, noise! Currently, there is just simply so much noise in most niche’s, so why instead of writing individual sites and keeping a little revenue, maybe the plan should be to join forces with other blogs and create a larger blog and take a smaller slice of a much larger pie.

I propose this question to you, “how can I get my site to stand out from the rest, especially considering we produce amazing content that is much better than the majority of our competitors”?

BBC Blog Network: Joke or Actually Worth It

The BBC has long been toying with the idea of blogs. Today SixApart have announced as a nice piece of PR that they are running the blogs for the BBC on their software. The blogs themselves are for individual shows and for individual people. Each blog has its own distinct style and design. As a collective the design really lacks imagination and format. If you would like to know where you can find this lack of imagination please head to the blog network home page.