Solving Feedburner Feedsmith plugin problems with WordPress 2.9

January 3, 2010 By 12 Comments

If you’ve upgraded to WordPress 2.9 like me, you might have found that the Feedburner Feedsmith plugin recommended by Google and Feedburner has now stopped working. In fact, I couldn’t even upload it to a new site which hasn’t been upgraded to 2.9.

There’s been no word from Feedburner about this (No surprise, since their original Feedsmith plugin page itself returns an error and they appear to have taken a vow of silence since being acquired by Google).

Luckily some of the other Feedburner plugins work with 2.9. I’m currently using and recommending the FD Feedburner plugin by John Watson. Just install the plugin, enter your Feedburner feed address (The options are under the plugin menu), and you’re done.

(Note, the redirect may not go into action until you make a new post after installing the plugin – but if you create a test post and then delete it, it seems to work fine)

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New WordPress 2.6 arrives – one month ahead of schedule…

July 15, 2008 By Leave a Comment

I know all the tech news type blogs will have covered this in-depth, but the new version of WordPress, 2.6 ‘Tyner’ has arrived one month ahead of schedule and looks awesome.

Post from anywhere is going to be incredibly useful, particularly in a blogosphere still worrying that microblogging is quicker and easier.  The wiki tracking of edits could be really helpful on my group blog over at www.140char.com, meaning that group posts could now be properly collaborative. Plus little things like wordcounts and image captions that make a big difference.

Having spent a lot of time on Blogger, I’m so glad I made the switch, even if it meant sacrificing my Google Page Rank for while!

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Social networking Virb -ally

May 13, 2007 By Leave a Comment

There’s been a lot of talk about new social networking site Virb, and having signed up, it’s easy to see why.

It’s pretty much everything Myspace could have been by now. Easy sign-up, very easy profile customisation, integration with Flickr, music player, video player etc. There’s a huge list of features, here.

And it also shares a sense of humour with a lot of web 2.0 start-ups, giving you friendly, original messages, rather than boring, staid old technical talk and 404 errors.

There’s suggestions it could be a Myspace killer, but I don’t think that will happen. Myspace is too integrated as the brand of social networking, and just aspiring models and spamming indie bands will keep that status.

Meanwhile Facebook has the ‘just connecting with friends’ corner, Bebo is more ‘tween’ orientated, and Faceparty is all about getting laid.

But Virb should pick up all the technically minded, and tech-interested web users. The basics give you WordPress-type customisation with ease, while the most technical will be able to do a huge range of things. So if you’re looking to connect with webbies, Virb looks like the place to do it.

I’m there, at http://www.virb.com/badgergravling.

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Don’t forget your foundations: Basics of a site

March 6, 2007 By Leave a Comment

Whether you’re aiming to build a site for the absolute minimum budget, or investing millions, there are rules which apply equally.
Some seem so obvious that you’d be amazed how many times I’ve seen them ignored, even on the biggest projects. I’ve even managed it myself, bursting my ‘holier-than-thou’ attitude somewhat!

The most important aspect of building a website for me is the opening stage. It’s the point where you define your mission, and you pick the Content Management System (CMS) and a host.

You need a clear, simple, defined mission statement.

You need a CMS system that you are comfortable with. And that has some type of reliable support network for coding questions at 3am.

You need a reliable hosting service.

Without these three things, you’ll always be fighting an uphill battle, no matter how big and impressive your site may be. If you’re on a budget, you can still shop around, with the likes of Joomla, Drupal and WordPress giving you free or open source methods of building a site. They all have advantages and disadvantages, and the best way to discover the right system for you , is to actually trial the thing. Only you know the methods you are most comfortable with.

Not only is it free, but it’s a darn sight easier to decide on a CMS before you fill a site with content, rather than changing six months later…

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