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WordCamp Birmingham Notes

Note: I had intended to post this Monday night, but work has been crazy-busy this week and Jim’s having a bit of a site snafu, so spare time has been pretty much nonexistent. LOL!

We had a wonderful time at WordCamp Birmingham this past weekend. A big thanks to Andre Natta and the B’ham team for all of their hard work. I’m most definitely looking forward to next year’s. The date is already set (September 26-27, 2009), so be sure to mark your calendar! Matt Mullenweg is slated to be a keynote speaker, so it should be awesome!!

The Future of WordPress

The first speaker we saw Saturday morning was Dougal Campbell with “The Future of WordPress.” He briefly covered WordPress’ version history and various milestones over the last few years. Thinking back, I think I started off with either version 1.0 or 1.1. I remember the upgrade to 1.2 being pretty hard, but that was nothing like having to re-do my theme for 1.5, LOL!

Ahh, those were the days … :lol:

He then moved on to the upcoming and much anticipated version 2.7. It’s due sometime next month. According to Dougal, there will be:

• more backend UI re-design;
• upgraded API, so you can upgrade themes, browse and install plugins and themes, etc.;
• comment improvements (many of these are covered in great detail on Otto’s blog) such as:
  • threaded comments
  • paged comments
  • auto-close comments
  • replying to comments from the Admin menu (a HUGE plus!!!)
• sticky posts;
• “Quick Edit” inline editing via Ajax for posts;
• HTTP-only cookies, a security feature;
• a new HTTP request API for plugin developers, replacing the current request API (Snoopy, I think?);
• and many others …

He also went over some possible features for future versions of WordPress:

• APP Importer: for Movable Type, Type Pad, Blogger, …
• A new “default” theme, possibly based on Sandbox or something similar to it. This will be replacing the current Kubrick theme.

Some features that he thinks are likely for version 2.8 (taken from the Trac Tickets) include:

• better page managment: select page order, hide pages
• expanded template functions: users, comments, attachments

We can look forward to seeing more CMS features, more social networking features, better widget management. Perhaps even OpenID (that would be sweet).

Documentation was brought up and he stated that there has been a big push (internally) to get the functions (I’m assuming he means the Codex?) better documented, updated, etc.

SEO For WordPress

The next speaker was Donna Fontenot, who had some really good insight on SEO for beginners. You can view her slides here. It is also available on her website in HTML format.

She started with a very simple recommendation as a first step for blogging: think first, write later. This can apply to so many aspects, and I admit it’s one that I don’t practice enough. You should actually USE the phrases you want to rank well for in blog posts. For best results, use them in prominent places:

• Document Title
• Body Headings
• In posts

Another stickler subject: Blog Visibility. In covering the WordPress Settings, she states that you should always make sure to have the privacy option set so that your blog is visible to everyone, including search engines.

Moving on to Permalink structure, the optimal setting is /%category%/%postname%/. For most blogs it’s ok to be different though. Dates, which are useless for SEO, are useful for users and are most generally preferred. It’s best to make sure that %postname% in there somewhere.

She talked a bit about URL canonicalization. Blog owners must make a choice: www or no www. Whichever you choose, you must consistently use it everywhere:

• Linking to your site
• correspondence
• email and IM signatures

Donna then moved on to categories. This is another thing I am doing wrong, LOL! She says it’s best to keep them as top-level important concepts, as opposed to tagging. Me, I tag and categorize all willy-nilly. Guess I’ll have to work on that. :mrgreen:

One of the plugins she highly recommended was All-In-One SEO Pack. I’ve heard about this plugin from several different people and from what I understand, it takes all the guesswork out of SEO for your blog. Donna says that the default settings work well.

Another plugin mentioned is: Excerpt Editor. This one gives extra control over excerpts, autogenerates excerpts (but allows overriding), prevents duplicate content between excerpts and full post, replaces the_content() with the_excerpt(), and more…

She spent a bit of time on two other post elements:

• Post titles:
  • use H1 or H2
  • Ok to use other tags, but H1 or H2 are best (use whatever suits your theme)
• Post slugs:
  • these should contain only most important words
  • and you should strip out “stop” words like ‘a’, ‘an’, ‘the’, etc. These dilute the value of other keywords in the slug (permalink)

Other topics covered were:

• Post Image Optimization
• Interlinking
• Encouraging Sharing/Linking
• Participating and Reciprocation

Donna’s presentation not only had a lot of good information, she also made recommendations as to customizations to themes and various plugins that could help improve the “SEO-ness” of your site. I highly recommend checking out her site. You’ll find a LOT of useful information there that she covered at WordCamp, and a lot more!

Merging your work life with your blog life

The next speaker was David Griner. His presentation was pretty comical, poking fun at himself (he’s not even a WordPress user *gasp* hehe) and his profession. While this wasn’t really one of the topics that first piqued my interest, it did have a lot of useful information for anyone whose ever wondered what it could take to make blogging a full-time job.

It’s not something I could do, but I admire anyone who does it!

Topics included:

• Pros of Freelancing
  • schedule your own time
  • stockpile blog posts in advance
  • decent extra pay
  • very minor level of celebrity
  • opportunities for guest editing/posting
  • work in your underwear
• Cons
  • most people suck at time management
  • you’ll starve
  • no benefits or security
  • can mess with your taxes
  • easy to lose steam
  • neighbors get tired of seeing you in your underwear
• Finding the right blog
  • you’re probably already reading it
  • who owns it?
  • how many writers?
  • Whats the output?
• Getting the gig
  • get to know the writers or editors
  • comment often under the same name
  • write response posts on your blog
  • if you like the site, help drive traffic there
• Asking for the job
  • no harm asking about openings
  • always write at least three sample posts that they could run that day
  • make sure your e-mail is colon-rupturing in its awesomeness
  • get across your enthusiasm for the blog
  • talk about how it has evolved
  • say why they need you
  • what is the blog missing?

You can see these and more in his slides here.

Break!

At this point, we broke for lunch. Jim and I didn’t go back for the late afternoon sessions. I was nursing a migraine and football would be on soon. (Hey, I’m a ‘Bama fan first and WP geek second! )

I went back Sunday for a couple of the sessions: Brett Bumeter’s “Windows Live Writer — Blogging with any Blogging Software Has Never Been Easier” and Mitch Canter’s “Making WordPress Dance.”

Brett’s presentation covered the Windows Live Writer application. It’s not really my cuppa, but would be a great interface for anyone intimidated by the web UI for most popular blogging software/services.

Mitch’s presentation covered several topics I had previously researched and I was impressed with the amount of helpful information he covered. He also had a great list of plugins that he recommended. I would like to see more of him next year, if he attends. You can find his slides here.

The Media

From watching the WordCamp Bham twitters, I can see that a photo pool is available on Flickr, as well as a handful of the presentation slides gathered on SlideShare. I also see that WordCamp Birmingham also made the local news. You deserve it guys, great work!

Good stuff. Can’t wait until next year.

How to: Del.icio.us links auto-post

Several people have asked me about the Del.icio.us posts. These are generated automatically by a function in your Del.icio.us account.

Get started

To find this function, go to your Del.icio.us account. Go to Settings. Under Blogging, click daily blog posting. Click add a new thingy.

Now the following settings will vary based on your blog’s platform and/or provider…

Edit: Big thanks to Conservative Belle for the GMT conversion table link!

WordPress (WordPress.com not confirmed)

- job_name this can be anything
- out_name your WordPress username for your blog
- out_pass your WordPress password for your blog
- out_url the full URL of the XML-RPC interface for your WordPress installation, which will be http://www.yourdomain.com/xmlrpc.php, or http://www.yourdomain.com/directory/xmlrpc.php if WordPress is installed into a subdirectory
- out_time the hour (from 0-23 in GMT) to post your links at every day
- out_blog_id your blog ID number (can be any number, probably 1 if you have only one blog)
- out_cat_id optional: this is the ID number for the category you would like these to be posted to

Typepad

Courtesy of Kyle Eslick

- job_name this can be anything
- out_name your Typepad username
- out_pass your Typepad password
- out_url http://www.typepad.com/t/api
- out_time the hour (from 0-23 in GMT) to post your links at every day
- out_blog_id In typepad, this can be found by clicking on the manage link. It should appear in the address menu link this: http://www.typepad.com/t/app/weblog/manage?blog_id=[Blog ID Number]
- out_cat_id optional: this is the ID number for the category you would like these to be posted to

Movable Type

Courtesy of Kyle Eslick

- job_name this can be anything
- out_name your MT username
- out_pass your MT password
- out_url http://blogname/mt-xml rpc.cgi
- out_time the hour (from 0-23 in GMT) to post your links at every day
- out_blog_id your blog ID
- out_cat_id optional: this is the ID number for the category you would like these to be posted to

Blogger / Blogspot

Courtesy of Kevin Lim

- job_name this can be anything
- out_name your Blogger username
- out_pass your Blogger password
- out_url http://videoblogging.info/tools/translator/
- out_time the hour (from 0-23 in GMT) to post your links at every day
- out_blog_id your Blogger blog ID
- out_cat_id this doesn’t work in Blogger, put any number here.

Got it? Good!

I hope I explained everything OK, feel free to holler at me via the comment form below if anything’s unclear.

Thankfully I am ‘me’ again

Well, I am FINALLY starting to feel a bit better. I came back to work yesterday and lasted pretty well (half the day). I had another doctor’s appointment yesterday afternoon. It seems the flu gave birth to a sinus infection.

Lucky me … it’s the gift that keeps on giving! ??:

So I got a shot and more pills. Meh. Oh well, at least now my head is clearer and though I’m still coughing up a lung quite a bit, I do feel a LOT better and have gotten most of my voice back. (much to Jim and Jessie’s chagrin I’m sure! )

I read that the Lunarpages crew are having their final 12 vote. None of mine were included, but two of my design submissions are now featured in their WordPress Theme Gallery, so that’s pretty cool in itself. Entering the contest was more about testing the waters and getting some (hopefully) unbiased feedback on my designs — so all in all, it was a good learning experience.

Though 5 years of free hosting WOULD have been nice … LOL!

Being at home by myself this week, I was reminded of why I stopped working from home and went back to work in an office environment — it’s boring! ;P The quiet time was nice, but after only a couple of days, I was wishing I was well enough to go in to work. Don’t get me wrong, I got a good bit of work done, but by the end of the day I was running out of things to do to entertain myself until time for Jim and Jessie to get home. I watched stuff on YouTube, I played online games, … in fact, this was the first time I played online Backgammon. I used to play Backgammon a lot when I was little with my Gramps. I think if he were around now, he’s probably love to hit up some Backgammon online.

I also spent some time working on a mockup Blogger design for the lovely ladies in the Cotillion that I had started a while back:

It’s based on an earlier design that they used at a previous location (on mu.nu I think). Overall, I’m very pleased with how well it turned out. I’ve still got a few bugs here or there to tweak. It’s harder than designing a WordPress theme, but I think that’s because it’s been such a long time since I’ve played around in Blogger code … so much of it has changed since I last had an account there.

Moving on … anyone got anything exciting planned for the weekend? Jim and I are planning on meeting up with Captain Fantastic and the lovely Miranda tomorrow and heading to the gun show in Bessemer. My Ladies Night Out group is also meeting up tomorrow night, but I don’t know yet if we’ll be done in time to go.

In all honesty, I don’t care what we end up doing. I’m just happy to get out of the house!