Freedom Countdown

Posts Tagged ‘WordPress’

I love Artisteer.  I’ve tried about 5 different tools to make a blog or a website and they’ve all been a lot of work, even though they claimed to be simple.  Artisteer truly is point and click and I’ve been able to do everything that I’ve wanted to do.  Plus for a $50 price tag, I can make as many website or blog templates that I want and none of them look the same.

I received feedback that my site was too blue.  And I agreed.   Plus I didn’t like the stock photo from Artisteer.  So I used Picasa to crop a picture of my grandfather’s windmill in Oklahoma  and I changed up the colors a little.  I like the new, clean, less blue look.

I think about the family farm in Oklahoma a lot and to me it represents a simpler time.  Of course, I was young and carefree when I was there, so no wonder Grandma’s house was so great.  For years, and even now, when I think about escaping or running away, this is where my mind takes me.

T-Minus 316 Days

While messing around with the WordPress plugins, I noticed several for backups.  What a shame it would be to do all of this work and a server problem or a hacker cause it to all be lost. I always say to backup whatever you’re not willing to recreate.

I had assumed that my blog was automatically backed up by my web host, but after reading a few horror stories about web host issues, I decided to be safe and install my own backup system.   By the way, my web host states that they do periodic backups of my files and site, but that they are not guaranteed to work and that there is a fee to access them.

I did a little research on two of the more highly rated backups, WP-DB-Backup and DBC Backup.  After reading the info at KLKL I decided to go with DBC Backup.  But when I installed it, I got an message stating that it had not been tested with my version of WordPress.  Since I don’t really know what I’m doing yet, I decided to go with the other option, WP-DB-Backup.

It was really easy to install and the configuration settings were self explanatory.  It has options to save the backup to your host, your hard drive, or your email address.  To provide another place besides my host where the files reside,  I opted for my hard drive.  I still need to select a method for backing up my hard drive.

It also has an option to make the backup automatic so that you never have to think about it again.  Simply check the box for the backup interval you want; daily, weekly, etc.

T-Minus 317 Days

I had planned to start this blog with an elegant countdown date of 365.  But I was bumfuzzled by all of the choices in blogging software coupled with some preconceived notions about how I wanted the blog to look.  As usual, I knew enough to get me in trouble.  If I had been happy with a quick and dirty solution I could have had a blog up and running on Blogger or WordPress in a few minutes.

After buying a domain name and doing some research I decided to go with WordPress for no other reason than it appeared to have more 3 column templates and my web host made Word Press easy to work with.

I’ve intended to learn HTML for some time and have even started a few tutorials.  I know it’s relatively easy, I’m just not interested.   So in my browsing, I ran across a little $49.99 software package called Artisteer that allows you to easily create your own WordPress templates.  As you are designing your template, the changes are reflected immediately on your screen.  It has an interesting feature where you can opt for Artisteer to suggest an idea for whatever component that you are working on… colors/header/footer, etc.

The tool can also be used to create a simple company website.  That will come in handy if I ever get around to updating the store’s website.  One drawback will be having to pay another $25.00 or so for an upgrade in a year if I want whatever new functionality they come up with.

After I created my template, I had to re-remember how to upload files to my web host and how to login to my WordPress account.  But thank goodness, I had written all of that down in a binder where I keep all of the arcane instructions required to run the online portion of the business.