Posted on January 28th, 2008 by Josh Stauffer
Let me cut to the chase… The number one reason why you should show your reader your most popular posts is because you want to keep them on your site as long as you possibly can. It’s that simple. One thing people are short of is time and it is your job to help them. Don’t make them dig through hundred’s of posts to find your cream of the crop posts. Keep your visitors longer by sparking their interests with other posts that your previous visitors have enjoyed.
How do I find popular posts?
There could be several factors considered when determining popular posts. Some factors may include: most pageviews, most comments, most trackbacks, most popular in a particular category, most popular site wide, etc. Luckily for you there are several WordPress plugins available to help you find your most popular posts. Popularity Contest Plugin or Top Posts by Category Plugin are worth checking out. Even if you can’t decide on a plugin the least you could do is check your site’s statistics and create a list with your top content.
Reason why to show your most popular posts
- People don’t have time to browse through hundreds of posts to find your best.
- You want to keep your visitors for as long as possible.
- You need to put your best content first.
- Show your new visitors what others have deemed worthy.
- The best bloggers do it.
If there are any other reasons why you think one should show their most popular posts please let me know by leaving a comment.
Filed under: Blogging | No Comments »
Posted on January 26th, 2008 by Josh Stauffer
I bought another laptop on Thursday, the HP Pavilion dv6736nr. So far I am not too impressed but that may be because I am still getting used to Vista. Don’t get me wrong, Vista looks beautiful and I love the feature packed Media Center, however, Microsoft has completely overhauled the UI which makes it more difficult to navigate. Also, I am already tired of being asked repeatedly if I am sure I want to run a program. Back up off of me, Vista.
The laptop is gorgeous with cool abstract shapes covering the case, almost identical to my previous laptop: HP Pavilion dv2000. I do prefer the smaller 14.1 inch screen over a 15.4 inch screen though. I think as time goes by and the more I bond with my new lappy, I’ll begin to like it more but until then I’ll just have to leave you with some cold, hard facts.
Pavilion dv6736nr Features
- AMD Turion 64 X2 mobile technology
- 2GB DDR2 memory
- Multiformat DVD±RW/CD-RW drive with double-layer support; also supports LightScribe direct-disc labels
- 15.4″ WXGA high-definition widescreen display
- 250GB Serial ATA hard drive
- NVIDIA GeForce Go 7150M
- QuickPlay touch-sensitive multimedia controls
- Built-in HP Pavilion Web cam and microphone
- 5-in-1 media card reader
- IEEE 1394 (FireWire) interface and 3 high-speed USB 2.0 ports
- Built-in high-speed wireless LAN (802.11b/g)
- Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium Edition
Filed under: Technology | 3 Comments »
Posted on January 23rd, 2008 by Josh Stauffer
What you’ll need:
- WampServer downloaded and installed (I am using version 1.7.3)
- Fake Sendmail
- GoDaddy email account (I tried Gmail and Yahoo email accounts but couldn’t get them working.)
Go ahead and install WampServer. I just installed mine to the root of the c:\ drive so it makes for easy access (For example, “c:\wamp”).
Next download Fake Sendmail. Fake Sendmail, aka sendmail.exe, is a simple windows console application that emulates sendmail’s “-t” option to deliver emails. Extract the sendmail.zip file and move the folder here: “c:\wamp\sendmail”.
We need the GoDaddy email account because sendmail.exe requires an smtp server to perform the actual delivery of the messages. Now let’s configure some settings in the sendmail.ini file located here: “c:\wamp\sendmail”.
- line 14 | smtp_server=smtpout.secureserver.net
- line 18 | smtp_port=80
- line 38 | auth_username=youremail@goeshere.com
- line 39 | auth_password=yourpasswordgoeshere
There are a few lines that need to be commented out/uncommented so I am providing a text version of the sendmail.ini file: sendmail.txt. Once your file looks similar to mine, save and close the sendmail.ini file.
Only one step left and that’s to make a change in the php.ini. Access the php.ini using this method below.
Search for sendmail_path and set it to “c:\wamp\sendmail\sendmail.exe –t”.
Save and close the php.ini file.
You must restart WampServer for the changes to the php.ini to take effect.
Having the ability to send test emails is great especially if you frequently work on scripts that require email generation. At least I think so (I’m smiling).
Filed under: Web Development | 18 Comments »
Posted on January 20th, 2008 by Josh Stauffer
I read a post on ProBlogger.net a while back that debated whether or not to have hyperlinks open in new windows. Up until that point I always set my links to open in new windows. A point was made in the article that we should let the visitor decide how they want to handle the hyperlink and set the link to open in the same window by default. If the visitor wanted to open the link in a new window, they could. At the time, this sounded rational but now I realize it isn’t.
Your goal should be to keep visitors on your site for as long as possible. In order to do this, you can’t take a chance that the visitor may not know how to handle the hyperlinks. All you have to do is set the link to open in a new window. Open links in new windows. Set the target to blank. Set the target=”_blank”. Do it.
Filed under: Ramblings | No Comments »