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Get Backlinks with Link Packets
If you need back links (and who doesn’t)… Then you gotta check out Link Packets… Here’s why…
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For the more advanced users…
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So, here’s the deal…
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Killed My Blog (WordPress 3 MU)
I completely destroyed one of my sites after upgrading to WordPress 3 and activating the Multisite (MU) feature… With all my post links broken, messed up permalinks and 302 redirects springing up left and right…
I remembered what ol’ Cesar Serna does when the earth quakes, and the poison arrows fall from the sky, and the pillars of Heaven shake. Yeah, Cesar Serna just looks that big ol’ storm right square in the eye and he says, “Give me your best shot, pal. I can take it.”
Or was that Jack Burton…?
Here is what happened… I had and existing blog and upgraded it to WordPress 3 using the Upgrade WordPress button in the admin dashboard.
Then I added the following line to my wp-config.php file:
1 |
This activates a new link called “Networks” within the admin area of WordPress… Tools->Networks… In here is where you upgrade a standard blog to use the new Multisite (MU) features…
How I screwed things up…
Here is where it gets screwy and WP completely drops the ball when converting existing blogs…
Screw up #1… WP3 requires existing blogs activating the new MU feature to use “SUBDOMAINS”… for some reason it cannot do sub-directory type blogs…
Screw up #2… WP3 suggests you switch to non-www domain… so I did…
Screw up #3… I clicked upgrade and committed the changes… yay!
Here is what I did to fix what broke…
Fixing permalinks… As it turns out WP3 decided to mess with my permalinks… oh yeah… just changed all of my permalinks… Even though it knew it was an existing blog upgrade… not that this would impact anything important… like say, I don’t know… indexed content in search engines and backlinks!!! WP3 used a 302 redirect for every post and sent it to the homepage… Thanks WP!
Here is how I fixed it…
- Opened phpMyAdmin to my WordPress DB
- Clicked on the wp_blogs table and added www to the domain
- Clicked on the wp_options table and added www to the domain for “home” and “siteurl” option
- Also changed the “permalink_structure” field back to my original setting “/%category%/%postname%/”
- Clicked on the wp_site table and added www to the domain
- Clicked on the wp_sitemeta table and added www to the domain in “siteurl” field
Opened the wp-config.php file and changed the “define( ‘SUBDOMAIN_INSTALL’, true );” to “define( ‘SUBDOMAIN_INSTALL’, false );”… also added the www to the domain name here… see below example…
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 |
But things were still not well… you see WP3 MU decided that it needed to hard code “/blog/” to the beginning of all my blog post urls (it does this for the main blog only)… WP3 MU currently has no way to disable this… WordPress Devs either don’t care or don’t get that changing all established URL’s will seriously screw my site up…
Of course I did what any rational person would do… I modified the core files… just one… 
In the “/wp-admin/options-permalink.php”… starting on line 94… I removed the hard coded “/blog”…
BEFORE:
1 2 | if ( is_multisite() && !is_subdomain_install() && is_main_site() ) $blog_prefix = '/blog'; |
AFTER:
1 2 | if ( is_multisite() && !is_subdomain_install() && is_main_site() ) $blog_prefix = '/'; |
One more change… Remember how in the “UPGRADE” WP3 MU forced me to go to sub domains instead of sub directory? Well it installs the sub-domain .htaccess code and at this point I need the sub-directory code… here is the code for sub-directory…
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 | RewriteEngine On RewriteBase / RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L] # uploaded files RewriteRule ^([_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/)?files/(.+) wp-includes/ms-files.php?file=$2 [L] # add a trailing slash to /wp-admin RewriteRule ^([_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/)?wp-admin$ $1wp-admin/ [R=301,L] RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f [OR] RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d RewriteRule ^ - [L] RewriteRule ^([_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/)?(wp-(content|admin|includes).*) $2 [L] RewriteRule ^([_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/)?(.*\.php)$ $2 [L] RewriteRule . index.php [L] |
As you can see the code for “Sub Directories” shown above is just a bit different from the “Sub Domain” .htaccess code WP installed shown below…
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 | RewriteEngine On RewriteBase / RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L] # uploaded files RewriteRule ^files/(.+) wp-includes/ms-files.php?file=$1 [L] RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f [OR] RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d RewriteRule ^ - [L] RewriteRule . index.php [L] |
All fixed and working… Thanks WP! (yea right…)
So after getting my blog back online and everything working as before I decided to test the new MU feature… I created a new blog and you know what? sub-directory blogs work just fine… even without the “/blog” WP hardcoded in the core file…
WP3 Devs take note… There is no need to force existing blogs to use “subdomains” or screw up existing posts with new permalinks and hardcoding “/blog”…
Just when the average coder would have thrown in the towel, I pulled it out in record time… reminds me of something I always say at a time like this…
When some wild-eyed, eight-foot-tall maniac grabs your neck, taps the back of your favorite head up against the barroom wall, and he looks you crooked in the eye and he asks you if ya paid your dues, you just stare that big sucker right back in the eye, and you remember what ol’ Cesar Serna always says at a time like that: “Have ya paid your dues, Cesar?” “Yessir, the check is in the mail.”
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No Pie at Marie Callender’s
Outrages isn’t it? How could one visit a place known for and built upon its reputation for delicious pies and not be able to get any? You want to know how? I will tell you, someone forgot about the pies and it wasn’t me.
Sunday Morning Breakfast
Up rather early this past Sunday I made my way down to Marie Callenders for breakfast. Sure I could have picked up hash browns, pancakes and eggs at several places between my home and Marie Callenders.
Only one obvious thing makes me drive the extra distance for breakfast and its called PIE! Every time I walk in I know I will see a glass case of fresh baked pies. The smell from the kitchen is one of a kind and the service up until recently was not to bad.
No Pie For Me
After eating my typical Sunday morning breakfast I was thinking over what kind of pie I should have. Apple or Cherry, maybe perhaps one of the seasonal variety.
As I was thinking in my mind what would go well with my coffee my waitress walked up to my table and without a word placed my bill in front of me. She walked away just as quickly to tend to another table and did not come back for some time.
Was it a mistake? Was she new? The place was not anywhere near full as it was early in the morning, so no need to rush me out right?
She forgot to ask if I wanted pie. The one thing I drove the distance for and looked most forward to. In fact I would be willing to bet that over 50% of the people in the restaurant that morning were looking forward to a slice of pie.
What happens when an eatery who’s has built a wonderful reputation for pies, begins to forget to offer pie to its customers?
A Better User Experience
Of course this write up is not completely about me not getting a piece of pie. More importantly I want to make you think about what is it that your clients or customers come to you for when they can go anywhere else? What is your pie equivalent that you have built your solid reputation on and are known for?
Your clients and customers can choose to go to several other places for products and service both online and offline. They choose to come to you for some reason.
More importantly is your unique user experience consistently delivered by your employees, website, business cards, packaging and even emails?
If you have ever visited Disneyworld you know that from the moment you enter the parking lot you are immersed in a magical experience. Walt Disney made sure that his vision of the Disney brand never failed to deliver starting from the parking lot to the ticket, food, rides, the buildings… well you get the point, until every last detail was covered.
Every moment was accounted for and every employee (aka Cast Member) understands the importance of the visitors experience. I know this for a fact as I was a Cast Member once. Even though I was a programmer at Disney, I was thoroughly trained in how to deliver the Disney experience, just in case I should ever be at one of the Theme Parks and encounter a question or request from a visitor.
Ask yourself if you and your employees are delivering the pie and the magical experience everyday and every time. If not, how much better could your business be if you started exceeding the expectations of your customers? How could your business deliver a consistent message and experience in person, in products, in services and online?
I Still Want Pie
Just out of curiosity, anyone else ever not get offered pie at Marie Callenders? Or was it just me?
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Pay Per Click Calculator Application on iTunes
I got my first application in the iTunes store! I figured I would start out simple with a Pay Per Click Calculator and called it PPC Calc. You can download it via iTunes or the App Store on your iPhone or Ipod Touch.
How Does It Work?
Using simple sliders to control your Affiliate Payout, Cost Per Click, Conversion Percentage and Total Clicks you can quickly see if your Pay Per Click campaign is headed for major profit or major loss! You will get instant information on:
Campaign Spend – How much you will be out of pocket
Break Even Units – How many conversions before you get your money back
Break Even Percentage
Converted – How many conversion with the current settings
Revenue – Gross Income
Profit – Net Income
ROI % – What is the Return on Investment?
Get PPC Calc!
If you have an iPhone or iPod Touch and access to the App Store you can download PPC Calc for only 99 cents!
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