To Add an Album Link or Slideshow

You will need to be logged into Google. You will need to be able to add HTML to site. In WordPress go to the upper right of where you are writing your posts and click HTML. Find where you are going to want the slideshow and go to Picasa in another tab.

If you are on the page that shows all of your albums over on the right you should see two words “Embed Slideshow.” That will show pictures from all your albums. You can copy the code you see there and paste it on your HTML page of your post.

If you want just one album, click the album name. This time you will see “Link to this album” on the right. While this will give you a code to link to the album, it will show just one picture. This may be fine in some cases. But when you clicked that link, “Embed Slideshow” appeared as well. Click that to get the HTML code you need for the slideshow you want. Now you have a slideshow.

There are too many variable

If you have WordPress there are over 11,000 plugins and over 1000 themes. Any person can have any number of plugins. There are dozens of themes with options to modify their appearance. Thereby we are talking probably millions of possible combinations.

However there are more variables, in addition to themes and plugins there are web host services. There are hundreds of different hosting options available. They can add in another variable that can mean something can work on one web host and not another.

Add into this equation that people have different browsers and what may work on one will not work on another. All of my sites are built with me using Firefox. I have tested most of them in Chrome and Opera. There are also Internet Explorer, Safari and other lesser known browsers. These read themes differently so the curved corners on Firefox 50WomenProject.com do not show up on Internet Explorer and actually mess up a bit in Opera.  Addons, plugins and other features can make their browser more unique and add more variables.

Let’s also add into the equation that some people are on PCs and others are on Mac. Then there is Linux which is a another operating system. These read and respond differently to different plugins, themes and such.

Oh, and since we do not have enough variables… let’s add in the fact that a regular monitor and a widescreen monitor pick up things differently. So when you visit one website with a regular monitor, that was designed on a widescreen, it may appear that things on the sidebar are cut in half.

What are you trying to say?

All of this is to say that you can not please everyone and take every possible variable into account. You can take most of them into account. You can make it work for the majority of the people who visit your website. You cannot make it work for every single person who comes to your website.

Someone is liable to tell you that you have the wrong plugins, theme or combinations because your website made their browser crash. Maybe, maybe not. It may be the cookies from a site they visited earlier disagrees with your site. It may be a random variable. It may not, but if your site works for most people then be happy!

Check your site on a couple different browsers. Ask friends who use different browsers or computer types to check your website. If there are problems turn off all your plugins and turn the back on one by one testing as you go. Try a different theme. Try http://IsMyBlogWorking.com. Once you are confident your website works for most people, do not worry about people who say your website crashes or does not work.  You have a great website!

Live, Laugh, Love

MJ Schrader

One thing to note, since I have been asked before… there are over 11,000 plugins.  This number grows daily so if you have seen me mention a smaller number… I did.  There were just over 2000 when I started working with WordPress.

Finding Your Site.

You may want plugins that help search engines find you.  Perhaps you want an SEO plugin such as All in One SEO or Platinum.  I prefer Platinum, but it’s personal preference.  You probably want Google XML SiteMaps.  It maps your site and keeps the map current.

Socially acceptable

Some people like social media plugins that allow readers to share favorite posts with social networking sites. Sociable, Sexy Bookmarks and many more allow your site to be shared on various social media formats.

Security

There are plugins for various types of security.  Backing up your blog was mentioned two days ago and is in related posts below.  You can hide your blog, your pages, change your robot.txt.  The types are too many to list and are as unique as your needs.

Speaking of Unique Needs

If you have pictures, audios or videos you may want a related specialty WordPress plugins. You may have another specialty plugin you need.  Don’t worry, I plan to cover some of the better plugins over the next few days.

Live, Laugh , Love,

MJ Schrader

Research time!  It seems the Twenty Ten theme had a little mistake, they changed a line of their code.  With the invent of Twenty Ten and the ability to make child themes (think skins or mostly appearance only changes) several themes were created that use Twenty Ten theme, thereby picking up this problem.  In addition there may be other themes with this problem.

If you have trouble with your blog images going back to full size, this may help.

CAUTION!!  THIS REQUIRES CHANGING CSS!!

If you are at all uncomfortable, ask someone else to do it.  Use this at your own discretion.

Here’s what you need to do, go to the editor under appearance.  On the right side select  style.css then scroll through the codes until you find:

/* =Images
-------------------------------------------------------------- */

#content img {
	margin: 0;
	height: auto;
	max-width: 640px;
	width: auto;
}

remove the line with width: auto;

Now your images should work fine.  If not you can remove the heigth: auto; as well.

HINT:  Copy all of the code in the area where you are working.  Paste in notepad.  You can always delete your changes and paste the original code back into place!!

Hope that helps my fellow bloggers keep their images the way you like!

Live ♥ Laugh ♥ Love

MJ Schrader

But when it rains it pours, and things went wrong, right, left, up and down.  June 1st to June 25th was seemingly one long blurry day of rain.  In the midst of it all, I suddenly found people who were local who had been friends since grade school, disappeared when I needed them most, after requesting my help days before and repeatedly pushing a known problem.   Yet my online friends stepped up, some knowing that my grandmother was only a big  drop in a bucket of a bad month, some simply knowing I was hurting.  And am still (there’s a lot unsaid).

Now perhaps you wonder what this has to do with online tools and how to use them.

Simple.

Years ago, people said you can not make real friends online.  Let me say social media has changed that.

Skype brought Kelly Maria Clark of KellyMariaClark.com and Vernon Harleston of TheHighRoad.com

Facebook and Twitter allowed Allison Smith Haley of Allicat.com, Bonnie Green of BonnieGreen.com, Kate Hollifield of CrazyQuiltAcademy.com and Elaine Ireland of ElaineIrelandPsychic.com  to chat, to email and send just this message *Hugs*.  Now if you are not a social media person the * indicates an action rather than saying something.

Text and cell phones kept me in touch with my boyfriend in New Mexico.

My real world broke apart.  My digital world exploded in love.  If you are not using social media then you do not know how many people who share your same heart (interests and personality and such) exist!

And as my world slowly started regaining some normalcy, I realized the #Blog30 had almost completely slipped by me.   25 days had.  So suddenly my head a bit above ground I started reading.

Create Something Buzzworthy by Melanie Kissell was the first that really struck me.  Somewhere in the middle of the month I started Rockstar Education to Website Basics and WordPress Site Creation and it has produced exactly zero sales.  So I am going to promote more, be louder about how much education you get in 3 months.  And now there is even coaching to go with it!

Then I stumbled across Suzie Cheel’s  Does Fear Stop You Growing? and I must say you feel pretty small when you are always afraid to ask for help and when you do people you trust disappear.  Yet unexpected people appeared and that made life better, and conquering fear is what I will have to do promote myself more.

Finally there was Michelle Shaeffer with Don’t Quit Weekend Inspiration by the time I read her blog…  I was in tears. (Sorry Michelle I just exploded in emotions on your comments)

It would have been easy to quit the blog challenge, to give my internet business, to lose faith, but that means giving up my dream.

I am a writer.

I am an author.

I have instructional guides that help beginners and are explained in detail without talking down, because YOU are worth it.  You are amazing. How do I know?  I was abused.  I have allowed people to tell me I am not worth it or worthy of good things.  And I know the garbage and dirt of life has denied the world of your beautiful light.

Thank you to all of you friends who touched my heart when your hands could not.

~ MJ Schrader

PS.  Get my WordPress coaching program.  It’s worth every cent.

Yes…

it is.

If you have been to an Unseminar you have heard about Masterminds.  This is a topic very near and dear to Bill Hibbler’s heart.

Just in case you do not know are groups of people who meet together to mastermind, or form meetings of the mind.  The idea is that two or more minds meeting together and working together create a third mind, a mastermind.

What about “Meet and Grow Rich”?

“Meet and Grow Rich” is a book written by two of my friends, Bill Hibbler and Joe Vitale. Using Napoleon Hill’s “Think and Grow Rich” they created this expansion and modernization of the mastermind concept. While Hill had touched on the concept Bill explains the details, advantages and power of masterminds?

Why use “Meet and Grow Rich”?

The book itself explains how to create a group, how to find partners and keep the group growing. Masterminds are a living organism that requires certain things to grow. When the mastermind is fed, it helps your business or personal life or both grow. The group shares information on whatever your problems may be and helps you circumvent them, while you help others with theirs.   You can visit Meet and Grow Rich and learn more about Masterminds and Bill Hibbler.  He’s a great coach.

~ MJ Schrader

PS Want to save 25% off my products?

In honor of Pat’s Unseminar 8, you can save 25% off any product this special page.  You have until July 17th!

During Check Out use Coupon Code: PatSpecial610

Jim Fisher from OutsourcingControl.com asked me about All in One SEO on Monday.   While is a fellow #Blog30 person he is also someone I met in person during Unseminar7.  He is a great person to follow on Twitter @OutsourceJim and a great guy.   Although he was asking me about how to use All in One SEO, I had to confess I switched to Platinum SEO.

However since many people may already have All in One or may be curious about it, I will go over both.

All in One SEO Settings

You can change the All in One SEO Settings by visiting the Settings tab on your dashboard. After installation this is where you will go to enable the plugin, because while you may have activated it, it will not be enabled.  Also this will have various other settings to adjust.  Here you can add your Home Page title, Home Description, and keywords related to your site. Since I am not an SEO expert, I recommend leaving the other settings as is.

All in One SEO on toast… sorry on post

Once you are finished writing your posts or page, scroll past the publish all the way to the bottom. There you will see All in One SEO. Here you can copy your post title into the meta title. Write a brief description of the material you covered. This is the description that you see when you type in a search. Next you want to type in words related to your post. The problem with Meta Keywords is that some search engines now ignore them. Too many people added keywords that were not relevant, so search engines started searching the actual article. Below that is a button to disable it on that page or post.  In this image below, you can see what this looks like with Platinum SEO, All in One looks similar until the part beneath keywords.

Platinum SEO

Platinum is in a separate box on the dashboard. You can change the settings in similar fashion to All in One. On your posts, you again will scroll to the bottom and add your Meta Title, Meta Description and keywords. There are boxes you can change beneath it, since I am not an SEO expert, and do not play one on TV I ignore these.

Why I switched

Platinum SEO does not ask for a donation with every upgrade as All in One SEO does. More importantly, should I change a permalink, Platinum SEO will do an automatic 301 redirect, which helps search engines and my readers find what they are wanting.  In addition, in the settings box I can migrate all my All in One SEO things to platinum.  (Note: You will want to back up your blog as a precaution.)  Also you need one or the other not both.  Too many plugins can cause website problems.

~ MJ Schrader

I was talking to Vernon Harleston of  HighRoadism.com last night.   Unfortunately there seems to be a “virus” that is claiming the lives of comments, making them disappearing into the ether. Hopefully I can shed some light on this problem.

If your readers are telling you there is a problem with your comments or you think your comments are getting lost here are some possible answers and solutions. While you do not want to be inundated with SPAM, legitimate comments are a way to know what is right with your blog and what your blog needs. Comments also help keep your blog alive and reader friendly.

Check your AKISMET, sometimes it catches comments thinking they are spam. Course it does catch a lot of true spam which is what makes it so great!

Other Spam Blockers

Unfortunately some of the spam blocker plugins block not just spam. There are some that block all comments. Now this could be a combination of your plugins not working well together or a theme and plugin issue.

Other Plugins

Unfortunately sometimes other plugins interfere with each other. This means one plugin may prevent another from working appropriately. You can turn off all your plugins by visiting Plugins and then installed, click all and deactivate. Then turn one plugin on at a time. This allows you to check for problems both with comments and also other problems you may have.

What else could it be?

Perhaps it is a problem with your theme. There could be a problem with their browser. It could be a temporary issue, sometimes there are glitches that cause minor and temporary problems. Unfortunately there could be millions of reasons why there is a problem.

Try Disqus

Disqus has been a great solution for me. Since comments are actually hosted on Disqus there seems to be reduced problems. You also receive less spam as Disqus adds additional layers of protection to Akismet. While it is a bit harder to set up, once set up it is easy to use.  It is also a free program so that makes it very nice!

~ MJ Schrader

Tomorrow’s Post: Categories vs Tags

An Example

Here is an example. Being more of a behind the scenes type person, it means I do not push my name out in public. Since I have helped various people with WordPress problems, even ones their tech person can not fix I have built a name. Now there are people who email me who need immediate help and are willing to pay for it.

But what about your business?

While that was helping people with my specialty, helping others in business can benefit you in additional ways. Perhaps someone needs help with something you know, you can offer a skill trade, like a barter. Trade your writing skills for their graphic skills. This helps both of you and does not cost a thing.

What about #Blog30?

Right now #Blog30 is running. This is a great chance to read phenomenal blogs and share them with others. You can comment on the blogs and help various people by pointing out things that can help make their blog better. By helping others they are more inclined to watch out for you and your business. In addition this cross communication of sharing information means invisible webs are being woven. A business acquaintance mentions your blog post on Twitter. Someone who reads their stream, may recommend you to someone else. Then that person may seek you out for friendship or business partnerships.

This is the beauty of sharing kindness.  What you do today, you may not see.  You may not see anything tomorrow either, but you could a week from now, a month from now… even later.  What you will get back will be a reflection of what you do.  So are you going to turn your back or spread the love?

~ MJ Schrader

PS. You should check out the new Rockstar Products!  And look into the new Rockstar Services!

Does your website have a flash or movie intro?

Flash or Movies may not load on different browsers. Some people are still on dial up. Even if that seems dark ages to you, think about dial up, think about people who are in remote areas who do not have fast internet. Your flash movie will keep them from going to your site.

Is your website an eye sore?

This is a surprisingly common mistake. I visited a site that was bright green with hot pink and yellow swirls on it. Unless that site was giving away money, I was not about to stay.

Did you forget to sell to your readers?

Most every website involves selling something. That something may be a product or service, but it involves selling. Even a personal website involves selling yourself, so let the readers know how you can make them laugh, cry or otherwise bring emotion.

Are you talking features or benefits?

On your pages you want to talk about benefits. Stir emotion in your readers, get them involved. The soft light from this lamp will make you look younger. Getting laser hair removal will mean smooth sexy legs all summer. These are benefits that keep your visitors on your business website.

Did you write for online reading?

Most websites have short paragraphs. Lists and highlighted text are common. There are spaces between paragraphs. What you will notice is that most of the writing can be scanned. Reading long paragraphs online is hard on the eyes.

How can you avoid these mistakes?

The common website mistakes are problems with not thinking about how other people see your website. While you may have a certain vision for your site and think everyone wants what you want, think about others. Ask people you know for honest opinions on your website. Ask them to use different browsers. When you stay focused on the reader your site will grow.