Expert tips and services for building successful blogs
Hi everyone!
Just wanted to let you all (and especially RSS readers) know that PerfectBlogger has now got its own community at MyBlogLog.
If you want the community members to have a look at your blog, feel free to join by stopping by at this page: PerfectBlogger @ MyBlogLog.
Since upgrading to WordPress 2.1, I’ve finally switched back to using the built-in posts editor. One of the reasons for doing this was that I’ve found the options I so needed – text justification and HTML code cleanup – available through the advanced editor options panel.
Pressing Shift+Alt+V in Firefox or Alt+V in Internet Explorer transforms your Standard Editor panel:
… into something like this:
As you can see, there’s quite a few more options available, namely:
With all these options, there really is no reason to search for a better visual editor anymore. TinyMCE, which is the engine behind it, fits WordPress 2.1 like a glove, and makes editing your posts and pages a real pleasure.
If you’re like me, you’ve got more than a hundred of RSS feeds in your favorite online RSS reader. If you’re also subscribed to some really active blogs like Lifehacker, which on average post 5-15 times a day, then your average number of unread posts will be around 100-120 each morning.
Now, you could try and honestly read each on of them. Will take you a few hours even if you read quick enough.
Another alternative is to skim through. Will be a bit faster, but still about an hour for 100+ posts.
Finally, you can minimize content to headlines only, and then you’ll be able to quickly run through all the posts titles and mark or open for further reading only things you’re interseted in.
But my ultimate solution to reading many RSS feeds a day is even a step further: use folders (in Google Reader), categories or tags – whatever it is called in your favorite RSS reader. Use this option which allows you group your feeds by a subject or level of importance.
The idea is this: if you sort all your RSS feeds into categories, you’ll be able to read/skim through posts on a particular subject only. This, in turn, will save you time because you don’t have to switch context all the time.
Here’s how it compares to reading all the headlines in one large list: as you go through titles of various posts on technology, productivity, graphics design, music and all the rest of your personal interests, you will automatically have to switch between subjects these titles are talking about. And it does take a few seconds for your brain to fully switch the context, recover a few latest news from the subject you’re switching to, and analyze the importance and relevance of a particular post title you’re looking at.
So my RSS productivity tip is this: place your feeds into categories, and you’ll save time because your brain won’t have to switch context when going through titles of new posts.
Aim to have 5-6 large categories with 20+ most interesting blogs and possibly another 6-10 smaller categories comprised of less important feeds.
This way, you’ll be able to run through all of them in just a few minutes, and mark stuff you’re not interested in as something you’ve already read.
At this point, you can either go ahead and read posts in each category (again, it will be faster cause topics are probably similar), or go and read all the posts from various categories in a much shorter list of only titles you’re interested in.
It’s been a bit over two weeks since the release of the long awaited WordPress 2.1, codenamed Ella, and although I had upgraded one of my blogs the very next day when it became available, it’s only now that I finally have some time to post about it.
First of all, please go and read the official announcement of WordPress 2.1. Once you learn all the new features, you will immediately know whether it’s worth upgrading or not.
If you have WordPress 2.0.5 and anything below it – don’t even waste your time: it is time to upgrade! Get at least version 2.0.7, although in most cases you should be okay just jumping up to 2.1.
There are many wonderful features in 2.1, but I personally like the following ones:
Hope I got you interested in at least giving it a try? Although if you haven’t done this by now, there’s hardly anything to convince you. As a last resort kind of a thing, I offer you a 10 Things You Should Know About WordPress 2.1 by Aaron Brazell at Technosailor. His article gives a great introduction to new features, and I think you will benefit from it even if you think you know enough.
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