Author: Neil Matthews

I was recently working on a clients site, and that site has accumulated over 8000+ spam comments. Unfortunately the site did not have an anti-spam plugin activated, so the comments were being held in the moderation queue making comments on the site unusable.

Akismet to the Rescue

I thought I could install and activate akismet, then run the re-check queue function. In essense this procedure re-runs the akismet check against all unmoderated comments, and any that match spam profiles are binned.

Due to the large number of spam messages, the re-check queue function timed out and would not perform the check.

Getting Down and Dirty

The only thing for me to do was to run some sql commands directly against the database and delete the unmoderated comments tbat way.

Because I don’t do things easily, I did not have access to the backend database, I would have to find a solution inside of WordPress.

My Solutions

First thing was to install a plugin which allows me to run comamnds directly against the wqordpress database, the Plugin I like to use for this purpose is wp-dbmanager, you can download this plugin from http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-dbmanager/

Once installed there are various options to maintain your database, optimise table, but the main function I wanted was the ability to run a query, there is an option to do this.

The Query

I ran the following query against my clients database:

DELETE from `wp_comments` WHERE `comment_approved` = ‘0’;

This is a powerful command, make sure you understand it before you go ahead, what it is saying is delete all rows from the table wp-comments where comment_approved = 0 or where a comment is not moderated. This will not delete approved comments, only comment sitting in the moderation queue.

The Result

The 8000+ spam comments were gone, akismet is installed and my client now has the confidence to re-open comments if they so choose. A neat little fix.

Once you know about wp-dbmanager there are a hundred and one admin tasks you can perform, but please use with caution and after a backup because you can also irreparably harm your site, that was my polite way of saying if you don’t know SQL commands don’t mess 🙂

Sometimes you want to add some content to your blog, and you don’t want it to appear on your front page.  Here is a time travelling tip for wordpress.

Why The Fudge Would I want To Bury Content?

You may not want content to appear on your front page for a number of reasons:

• It is supplemental to your blog, not a main post
• It’s an update to an old post
• You may publish date specific posts
• You want to pretend you blog is older than it is 🙂
• How the heck do I know it’s your blog, I am sure you can see a need

My example is, I was creating members only content on my site and I did not want it to appear on the main page, to distract none members, so I buried in the archives.

Use Your WordPress Tardis

For those of you who do not follow Dr Who, the Tardis is a time travelling machine, and WordPress comes complete with it’s own tardis so you can make post appear back in history.

Add Your Content in The Normal Way

To take advantage of this trick, create your post in the normal way and save it as a draft.

Here’s The Trick

There is a little box called publish immediately under the save draft button, click on that and a time and date of publication is shown.

You can set a post to be published in the past, and it drops into your archives and off the front page.  Neat-o!

The WordPress Tardis Can Take You Forward In Time

I wrote a post about time travelling to the future with wordpress here Write Now Post later

I’m Off To Defeat the Daleks

If you want to mess about with your blog’s time space continuum this is a great trick.

Using native WordPress functiuonality it is very easy to create a controlled environment where multiple writers can add and publish posts on your blog.

Roles

The main technology behind this are WordPress roles.  As you add users to your blog, assign them to roles and this then controls if they can write blog posts and more importantly if they can publish them without your intervention.

Roles are available at users -> authors and users from yoru dashboard.

The Admin – I am the media moghul

This is the main user that is created when you install wordpress. it can do everything, from creating posts , publishing posts to doing technical tasks on the blog, we are note really interested in admins for multi writer purposes.

The Editor – Damn it, just write it up

This is the boss of your blog writers, this role shouts stop the press (or don’t click the publish button) can add content, publish it, delete it and have compelte editorial control of blog posts and pages.  They can delete old posts from anyone.

What the editor cannot do it effect technical aspects of your sitem ad plugins change themes that type of thing.

The Author – I cannot reveal my source

This role could be thought of as a staff writer on a national newspaper.  Your typical hack, cigarette out of the corner of his mouth, ringing his contacts, chasing the story dreaming of the Pulitzer, hang on did I just go off on one there.

This is someone you trust to write on your blog, they have writing and publishing permissions, the editor can cut them off at the knees with one swift unpublish click, but there stuff will go live without editorial intervention.

The Contributor – I write therefore I am

This is your lowest level of writer,  think of them as a freelancer on a newspaper, they write their piece and send it in to the editor for publication.  Contributors can login and write their blog posts and submit them for review, that is it.  they cannot delete their old posts that have been published or publish new posts.

If you have occasional guest posters, this may be the role for them, they add a post, then you review and decide if it is ready for publication.

The Subscriber – it must be true I read it on a blog

For completeness I thought I would add subscriber, this is the end reader with a twist, this is someone who has created an account on your site, think of this as someone who has a magazine regularly delivered, they have a little more access to your site than a casual purchaser of a magazine.  They cannot create posts.

Further reading

Here is a detailed description of the various WordPress roles in WordPress Roles Explained

If (like me) you run a business which is fronted by your blog, and that business really takes off, you will find yourself in the annoying  but pleasant position of not having enough time to keep your stream of blog posts going.

I find myself spending the majority of my time serving my clients needs and have very little time left over to write quality blog posts, this is an enviable position to be in,  but if people are coming to you because of  your blog,  you also need to keep that quality content going, here is my list of things to do to lessen the burden of writing so you can concentrate on your  clients/business.

Let Your Blog Readers Know

If people are used to a certain posting frequency from you, then it is only fair that you let them know, a quick blog post disguised as a list of things to make up for you lack of time will do.

Here we go; my business has taken off and I will only be posting once per week.  Thanks for your understanding, I have a large archive of useful posts feel free to browse through them in the mean time.

Reduce Posting Frequency

Look at your current posting frequency, if you are finding the burden of writing quality content and serving the needs of your business are too much, then cut back on your posting frequency.  No one is going to worry too much if you post five times per week and cut it down to three, but remember to let your readers know.

Stockpile Posts

When you have a quiet period, run off as many blog posts as you can, keep them in draft mode and publish them in line with your new posting schedule.

I find I don’t always have time to write the full post so I outline the idea I want to write about, with paragraph headings and quick notes and what I want to write.  You will be surprised how much this speeds up the writing process.  You have a blog post already researched and thought about which just needs some flesh on the bones.  This stops the dreaded writers block when you need to crank out a post with little time to dedicate to the writing process.

Recycle Posts

You may have a post languishing in your archive that no-one visits, that you were not too happy with, or that needs an update.

Get this post out, rework it and re-publish it by setting a new published date.  This will bring that article back to the top of your blog for people to read.

Warning, your long term readers may smell a rat, be transparent about what you have done.  For example I could recycle one of my plugin reviews, and add an updated header like this:

Plugin XXX has been updated and the functionality has change quite a bit, so I have updated my plugin review and brought it back to the top of my blog post list, I hope you enjoy it ….

Create Series Posts

This is another way to recycle your blog posts, and that is to create a series link list of related posts. An example from my site would be to bring together all of my posts on comments, write an introduction on the benefits of comments, and then link to all of my other posts.

A bit of a cheat, but a very useful resource for people wanting to learn more about WordPress commenting.

Run A Poll

Polls are very quick to create, and are great ways to interact with your audience.  I wrote a blog post on Adding a Poll to Your Blog

[poll id=”3″]

Get Guest Posters

If you don’t know the benefit of guest posting, check out Guest Posting Like A Pro, but as the blog owner if you invite guest posting, you have a ready made blog post, fresh content with a new voice, a brilliant way to keep your blog current.

I am open to enquieries on guest posting, please send me a message from my contact page with details of the post you would like to write.

Hire a Writer

If you business is booming, surely you have some spare cash to bring in a blogsmith?  Pay by the post freelance bloggers are not that expensive, check out the Problogger Job Board for ideas of costs and as a way to hire writers.

For me this is something I am not that interested in, I am very protective of my blog, it has my voice and I want it to stay that way (or am I just too cheap, who knows 🙂 ).  Would bringing in staff writers dilute that?  I don’t know your comments would be appreciated.

Make Time

If your business took off because of your blog, and you are getting clients because of the expertise you display on your blog, you need to invest time in writing and marketing your blog.

I have blocked out one session per week for writing blog posts, I am not writing with the same frequency I used to when my business was not as developed, but I want to keep the quality up and build my blog subscriber base (and potential client base) to a much higher level.  Hopefully I have the right mix of frequency and quality.

What’s Your Take

I would love to hear what you think about this subject, and it’s cousin of keeping your social media makreting going when  all of yur time is being given over to your client requirements.

Drop me a message in the comments section below.

A very useful,but not very well advertised function of WordPress has been added with version 2.9.x.  I thought a quick blog post to show people how to use it was in order.

As of 2.9.x you can now to a mass update of all your out of date plugins.

Tell Me Where it Is

It would seem logical to place the mass update under the plugins section of the dashboard, perhaps under the plugins requiring update section, but no, that would be too obvious.

This very useful function has been positioned on the same page where you perform an update of your core wordpress files.

http://{YOUBLOG}/wp-admin/update-core.php

What Does It Look Like

Here  is a screen dump of the page from my blog:

How Does It Work?

Click on select all, or manually choose all plugins to update and then click on upgrade plugins and it does the whole shooting match in on fell swoop.  Excellent,  if you have a lot of plugins to update this eases the maintenance burden.

Backup

It’s probably a good idea to backup your system before you click update.

Wrap Up

There have been plugins to do this for quite some time, I am glad to see this added to the core functionality but why conceal it in such a weird location.

I am working with the owners of a blog who provide a news service to a resort island in the southern henisphere, and part of hteir requirements was a weather update on the top of their blog.

This is the first time I have been called upon to do this, so I though I would share my findings with you lot.

Weather Services

There are a number of weather services out there who coallate reports and make them available as web services.  This seemed the best bet, plugin to one of these services and use their data.

The eventual service I chose was http://www.accuweather.com/

Match Weather Services with a plugin

Once I had selected my weather service, the next step was to either write some code to pull in the data from Accuweather or to find a plugin that did it already.  I’m all for not re-inventing the wheel, and I found a number of plugins that used Accuweather.  I finally selected wp-forecast http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-forecast/

I chose this because it had the ability to code the weather into the theme through php calls along with widgets.  The level of data provided was very good, and it looked great on my clients site.

Configuration

WP_forecast is a fairly simple thing to use, install it in the normal plugin fashion, then retrieve your location from Accuweather.  It will come in a format similar to this:

EUR|UK|UK179|NEWCASTLE|

I simply searched on the homepage for my city, and this code was appended to the end of the URL, a quick cut and paste, and I had weather for cold old Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

There is a lot of data to add from temperature, wind speed and direction, humidity and loads more.  A very thorough service.

The Current Eeather In Sunny Newcastle UK Is:

I installed wp-forecast on my blog and screen captured a view of the widget so you can see what it looks like

And That’s The Weather For Today

Having a weather forecast may not be everyone’s thing, but if your blog is the front end for a bricks and mortar site, where people come and do things (can I be more vague) then this may be for you.