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Tips: How to Install and Fix the New ‘ShareThis’ WordPress Plugin

August 26, 2010 By James View Comments

ShareThis recently updated their WordPress plugin to allow you to choose a bunch of great new styles and display options. However, I found out that it took a little trial and error to get it to play nicely and do what I wanted it to do.

IMPORTANT: It was my experience if you already have the ShareThis plugin installed and simply update it, your options won’t show up on your page. You need to first deactivate, then delete the plugin, then reinstall it.

Fixing the Weird Little Lines that Show up at the Bottom of the New ‘ShareThis’ Plugin in Horizontal mode

Once you have the new plugin up and running, one of the popular options seems to be “Horizontal Count”. The problem is that for some reason the default style associated with that choice gives off funky little lines under the two “share” buttons.

It’s not much but it was enough to bug me so here’s how I fixed it.

You’ll need to be able to edit your head tag and add some style code to that.

Add this code inside style tags somewhere before your /head tag:

.stButton_gradient{background-image:url('http://w.sharethis.com/images/gradient.gif');background-repeat:repeat-x;border-left:1px solid #bfbfbf;border-right:1px solid #bfbfbf;border-bottom:1px solid #bfbfbf;padding-left:2px;padding-right:2px;padding-top:0px !important;padding-bottom:0px !important;line-height:16px;font-size:16px;font-family:serif;}

You can see the difference between the image and the actual buttons below. For some reason, the default padding the plugin puts on those buttons causes it to break just a little bit. What the code above does is simply remove the bottom and top padding.

If you try it, post your results in the comments so we can take a look.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: css, plugins, sharethis, Social Media, style, Tips, WordPress Tips

Zen and the Art of Blogging: Hosted vs. Self-Hosted – Where to Begin

August 3, 2010 By James View Comments

One of the first things you need to do once you’ve decided that you want to become a kick ass, famous blogger that can change the world with a few keystrokes is to decide what type of platform you your blog to be built on. No matter who you are, or how big or small your audience will be initially, everyone has to make this decision before they begin.

First, let’s start off with some basic definitions so that we’re clear on what we’re talking about.

Self-Hosted

Choosing a self-hosted blog means that you, not the blogging company, will be taking care of hosting your site. If you choose to go with a self-hosted blog you’ll need to make a few more decisions like which platform to use and where to host it. As far as the choice of platform goes, for the purpose of this post, I’ll only be dealing with WordPress.org. For hosting, that’s up to you. You’ll need to start off with a simple hosting package from some place like GoDaddy (affiliate link) or Bluehost.

While a self-hosted blog gives you the most flexibility to what you want with your blog, it also means that you, or someone you hire, will be responsible for virtually every aspect of you site. Fortunately WordPress now has an automatic update feature so when a new version is released all you need to do is click a link that shows up at the top of your dashboard and the update will be handled for you. Installation shouldn’t be an issue either considering virtually every hosting provider worth its salt (certainly the two mentioned above) have one-click installs of WordPress that handle everything from the database creation to populating the initial files for you.

Hosted Blogging Solutions

Hosted blogging platforms do one thing spectacularly. They let you focus solely on content. Once your site is set up you never have to worry about what’s going on in the background, upgrades and general maintenance is taken care by the blogging platform itself.

  • WordPress.com – WordPress.com is a hosted and slightly crippled version of WordPress.org. The main difference is that you can’t run ads on your site. In my experience the ability to theme a WordPress.com site isn’t quite as flexibility as the self-hosted version. WordPress.com is free but they do charge for certain add-ons such as using a custom domain name.
  • Typepad.com – Typepad has been around for a long time and has a lot to offer the small-business types. One thing Typepad does well are their clean, professional looking themes. Typepad is a paid service.
  • Tumblr.com – Tumblr is a “short” blogging platfrom that makes it easy to post a wide variety of content while drilling each post down to the specific kind of content you are posting.
  • Posterous.com – Another “short” blogging platform boasts it’s the easiest way to post and it probably is. The only thing you have to do to start your blog on Posterous is send a post to post@posterous.com and you’re all set.

If you’re looking for a hosted blogging solution you’re going to need to do a lot more research to find out which one of these is right for you. Don’t be afraid to sign up for an account and play around with the dashboard of each and see which one you’re more comfortable with. Even Typepad, which is the only service that charges, has a 30-day free trial so you can get in there and see what it’s like.

This is by no means a complete list of every blogging platform out there. These are just a few that I’ve had a good deal of experience with and would feel comfortable recommending to someone who asked my opinion.

Filed Under: Blogging, Tips Tagged With: Blogging, posterous, Tips, tumblr, typepad, WordPress Tips, zen and the art of blogging

Thesis 1.6 and Why You Should be Using It

October 31, 2009 By James View Comments

thesis-260x125When I began blogging back in 1999, I may not have had the tools at my disposal that I have today, but one thing I was as certain of then as I am today is the power of blogging. There has been no other tool in the history of mankind that has given voice to so many, for so little, in such a short period of time.

I believe that history will look back on this era, this dawn of social media, and pay homage to those who played a part in arming the masses during this wondrous time. It is my personal opinion, and I believe that history will bear this out, that Matt Mullenweg (Wikipedia) will be one of the people that will go down in history as having given voice to so many who may otherwise have felt marginalized and silenced their entire lives.

Of course there are many thousands of others who have played a part and I’m not saying Matt is the most important, nor the least, I am saying that for him to remain adamant about keeping WordPress Open Source even while it demolishes competitors in the market, is something very special.

Bet you weren’t thinking I was going to get so deep on why you should be using Thesis huh? Well, if you’re still reading this then I’ll assume you have a WordPress powered site, or are at least some marginal interest in starting one up. Once you’re up and running you’re going to want to customize the look and feel of your site. Depending on your level of experience and your budget this may be relatively easy or damn near impossible.
[Read more...]

Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With: Blogging, themes, thesis, tools, WordPress Tips

WordPress 2 App

October 30, 2009 By James View Comments

I just downloaded the WordPress 2 app. It’s has a few more options for bloggers, with a heavy focus on content moderation.

Like the old app it allows you to publish posts on the go as well. This time you can type your post body in landscape mode, which I’m not sure was an option in the first app.

A cool new feature is that it autosaves your post so if you drop connection, which you most definitely will since you’re on AT&T’s network, you can come back to it later when you’ve reconnected.

Below are a few screenshots and a few test photos.
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Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With: app store, apps, iPhone, mobile, WordPress Tips

The Social Media Briefcase

October 29, 2009 By James View Comments

If you’re ready to create, strengthen or build upon your presence on the web then you’re going to need to make sure that your Social Media Briefcase is stocked with the right tools for you to succeed.

There is no “one right tool” for everyone. Every social media strategy is unique and a good strategy should also be malleable and prepared to quickly adapt to the landscape as it develops. The inability to adapt is the one sure way to ensure failure.

That being said, as you prepare to launch yourself into the great unknown the one thing you can do to prepare yourself is make sure you’re properly equipped.

The list below is by no means exhaustive, but it will definitely get you started on your way to staking claim to your own little section of the internet. While the three tools listed below may not be the only weapons in your arsenal they are sure to lay down enough cover fire to get you safely where you want to go.
[Read more...]

Filed Under: Blogging, Tips Tagged With: posterous, Social Media, social media briefcase, twitter, WordPress Tips

Thesis 1.6 Upgrading Tips

October 21, 2009 By James View Comments

Total credit goes to Kristarella for figuring out these two bits of code that were stumping me. If you are upgrading to Thesis 1.6 and you have a customized nav and a custom header background there are three bits of code you’ll have to tweak in order to get them to work.

When I first upgraded I followed the instructions on the Thesis site but something was still not quite right. The site looked like this:

James Poling — Blogger. New Media Strategist._v1

For the most part everything worked flawlessly with the obvious exception of the nav and the header background. So, if you’ve upgraded to Thesis 1.6 and you’re site looks something like this don’t fret. You’re a few quick changes away from getting your site back to where it needs to be.

All of these changes will need to be made in your custom stylesheet. All can easily be accomplished with a few quick search/replace.

In Thesis 1.6 a few div ids and classes have changed

#tabs are now .menu

Current page item has been trimmed down to just current.

.current_page_item to just .current

This step wasn’t necessary in previous versions but in 1.6 you’ll need to proactively add a transparent background to the “page” class

#header_area .page {background:transparent;}

If you’re having trouble upgrading to Thesis 1.6 and keeping your current design, try these three steps and 9 out of 10 times your issue will be resolved.

Filed Under: Blogging, Tips Tagged With: code, thesis, Tips, WordPress Tips
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