So, how do you tell if you have a site built on the WordPress platform? There are a couple of ways:

1. View Source.
   While using your browser, you can View Source and look for certain code at the very beginning. You should see something like a meta tag code or CSS file location. Below is a screenshot of some HTML code. Click the image and you’ll notice that I’ve highlighted a certain section. It says, ‘/wp-content’ that is a dead giveaway that WordPress is being used in some manner.
   Okay, so how did I get there? Well, if you right-click within the website with your mouse you be given an option to ‘View Source’ or Ctl-U on your keyboard.
   
2. Do You Have a Login?
   Try to see if you can access the administrative side by adding /wp-admin after your domain, for example: company.com/wp-admin. If so, you should reach a page where you enter login details. It should look like this:
   

So, as I’ve mentioned before, be sure you backup your WordPress website and keep it updated to prevent hackers looking for security holes.

Here we are discussing the various types of content managements systems available to you. There are several others out there, but these four are the more popular ones with a pretty large public support.

WordPress

This CMS type is a very successful & the most popular blogging system. A lot of effort is being put into constantly upgrading it with focus on presentation, usability and functionality. Even my high school nephew would have no problems using WordPress. And you can download it for free! It also has a wide variety of free plugins that can help extend your website.

Its downside is that it is not the best source for an e-commerce platform.

Joomla

Joomla is another popular type of CMS. It has over 4,200 extensions available and some acceptable free templates. You may also download Joomla for free. With this system, you can easily and instantly create simple to moderately-advanced websites even if you don’t have a clue about PHP. Joomla is one of the most user-friendly CMS around.

Its major set-back is that it uses some terms that may be confusing, like “plug-ins”, “modules”, “components”, “categories”, “sections”, etc., which requires some experience to understand. Secondly, Joomla extensions and some of its templates are not free.

Expression Engine

Expression Engine is another CMS that makes the creation of an advanced website attainable. It is a powerful CMS known for its flexibility and for opening limitations that are holding back other CMSs.

One of its set-backs is it requires the user to have a certain knowledge of PHP and can be difficult to design and code. It is free only for personal and non-profit use. If you are a business, it will cost up to $249.

Drupal

Drupal uses a powerful templating system and generally used for very large sites. Any XHTML or CSS template can be easily converted to Drupal. It also has a high flexibility and many high profile companies use Drupal. (e.g.: MTV UK, BBC, the Onion, Nasa, Greenpeace UK, New york observer. )

It’s major flaw is their frequent updates which find programmers finding it difficult to keep up with plug-in development. In addition, there seems to be a lack of a thriving community contributing to plug-ins and themes.

CMS stands for content management system. It is a system used to support the development, management, distribution and publishing of content on your website. But is it CMS suitable for your website?

Like any system, CMS has its pros and cons. Let’s run them down before we come into conclusion if a CMS is for you.

Content Management Systems Pros & Cons

The PROS:

• Simplifies content creation and editing by its easy-to-use authoring environment that works like Word. So no worries if you are not familiar with html or writing codes.
• Can be much less expensive and faster to build if using one of the many templates or themes available (rather than custom designing).
• Allows managing of the structure of the site by simplifying the process. You may even just drag-and-drop to restructure the site without breaking links.
• Allows for multiple users while ensuring that each can only change the section of the site that they’re responsible for. Once content is written, it is sent to a central hub where it is automatically sent for approval and editorial review.
• Ensures consistency across the entire site by featuring publishing engines that allow the page layout and appearance of the site applied automatically during publishing.
• A CMS can also be customized to build template sites, site builder sites or blogs. * Low Cost – some web-based CMSs are free.

And the CONS:

• If Custom Designed can be Higher Cost – to design a customized CMS site will cost a lot more than a static site because it will require a lot more work for the designer.
• Restricted HTML editing. The design can be somewhat restricted after the website is developed.
• It can be difficult to switch web hosts.
• Prone to errors – the fact that it’s open to multi-users, especially if the site contains many files makes it error-prone. It may take the web developer a lot of time to figure out the error and can result to having to get the site offline to fix it.
• Flexibility in design is limited to the templates that CMS sites primarily use.
• The website can tend to look like a CMS website.

So is CMS a good fit for your website?
The answer depends on your requirements like how many times a year do you make updates on your website? How much does your developer charge you for an update? Do you only require regular updates on some parts of your site? Do you have the time and the manpower to sustain your site’s update?

Once you have answered these questions, we will be in a better position to decide whether CMS is suitable for you.

If you need additional recommendations on what system will be most effective for your website, call me on 281-940-7002 or email me.

P.S. If a CMS interests you, look out next week to find out which CMS type is best for you.

We’ve learned that there are some basic plugins that should be installed with each wordpress website. These are administrative plugins that make managing your wordpress a bit easier. Be careful as each WordPress website is unique and could have custom code or plugins that render some plugins useless.

Always test before using any plugin and BACKUP!

1. All in One SEO Pack
   Optimizes your WordPress blog for Search Engines. It allows you to create unique title, description, and keyword tags. Avoids the typical duplicate content found on WordPress blogs
2. cforms ii
   cforms is a powerful and feature rich form plugin for WordPress, offering convenient deployment of multiple Ajax driven contact forms throughout your blog or even on the same page.
3. pageMash
   Customize the order your pages are listed in and manage the parent structure with this simple ajax drag-and-drop administrative interface with an option to toggle the page to be hidden from output. Great tool to quickly re-arrange your page menus.
4. Ultimate Google Analytics
   Adds Google Analytics JavaScript to each page on your weblog without making changes to your template. The plugin can also add tracking to outbound links, downloads from your own site and mailto: links using the FREE Google analytics application.
5. WordPress Database Backup
   WP-DB-Backup allows you easily to backup your core WordPress database tables. You may also backup other tables in the same database. Be sure to follow the instructions for security.
6. WP htaccess Control
   provides an interface to add custom htaccess rules to the htaccess file generated by WordPress. It also includes an improved and much more stable version of Custom Author Permalink.
7. Ozh’ Admin Drop Down Menu
   All admin links are shown in a neat horizontal CSS driven drop down menu. Makes moving to different pages easier.
8. Google XML Sitemaps
   All admin links are shown in a neat horizontal CSS driven drop down menu. Makes moving to different pages easier.
9. Akismet
   Akismet checks your comments against the Akismet web service to see if they look like spam or not and lets you review the spam it catches under your blog’s “Comments” admin screen.
10. WordPress Automatic Upgrade. WordPress Automatic Upgrade allows a user to automatically upgrade the wordpress installation to the latest one provided by wordpress.org.

This tutorial reviews the following:

• Adding a photo or graphic.
• Editing the style of your graphic.
• Review of adding and editing alternate text.
• Adding a caption to your photo.
• Adding a margin (or padding) around your image.
• Adding a border around your image.
• Finding images that you’ve already uploaded.

http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/40-most-wanted-wordpress-tricks-and-hacks/

< ?php the_title(); ?>< ?php edit_post_link(__('Edit', 'sandbox'),'','') ?>< ?php } ?>

Place this code in the Page.php of your WordPress template.

Look for the <h1> </h1> or <h2></h2> tags and PHP code calling for the Title.

Included were video tutorials that GlobalSpex prepared to help understand each section of the site and how to make changes. For example, the sponsors section section is shown in 2 place (the right column animated and the sponsor page with logos), a simple e-commerce tool, and widget that pulls event photos from Picasa.

View the live site.

1. Download and install the Kimili plugin.
2. Add the [ kml_flashembed movie="/path/to/video/video-file_controller.swf" height="250" width="400" fvars="csConfigFile=/path/to/video/video-file_config.xml" / ] to my post or page.
   Note: What I couldn’t understand was that you don’t call the myfile.mp4 file but the controller.swf file. This will embed your video and the controller.