WordPress Tools for Webmasters

Webmaster Tools Review

I subscribe to many mailing lists, and this article showed up in one of them. 

12 Best WordPress Automation Tools and Plugins 

Compared (2021) 

Last updated on September 3rd, 2021

WordPress Virtual Meetup Calendar ~ Redux

  WP User Groups
WP Meetup Meetings
Zoom Meetings

This calendar was originally posted in December 2020; I am reposting it so you can quickly find it.  It is still updated daily:

The Science Behind Limited Menus and Short Sentences

"Remember"

a book by Lisa Genova

For a really long time, I've heard about two "Best Practics" for websites. This advice applies across all Internet sites:

1. Limit menus to 5-7 choices
2. Write with short sentences

I've tried to apply them as best as I can without understanding why. 

The first bullet (menus) "felt" right and I've tried to stick to it.

The second bullet (short sentences) is a challenge because I have always prided myself on constructing long and complex sentences; my engineering/systems administrator background encourages me to write and even talk with parenthesis, quotation marks, and footnotes. 😀 (Whew!)

The Science is In!

Thanks to Genova's book "Remember" I now have the why for those two best practices.

Post-Pandemic Blended-Hybrid Virtual Zoom Meetings #2

 

Blended / Hybrid

Virtual Meetings 

May, 2021

People are eager to return to live in-person meetings, and many still want to enjoy joining sessions across the country without actually traveling there.

I had previously explored the "why" of having blended / hybrid meetings.

Now I want to explore the "how" to use Zoom meetings

Post-Pandemic Blended-Hybrid Virtual Zoom Meetings #1

Blended / Hybrid

Virtual Meetings

April 2021

We have a new challenge as the world moves from virtual online meetings to live meetings. There are several "dots" to connect as I explore what these post-pandemic meetings will look like.

First, there continues to be a strong interest in live meetings that have a Q&A session. That has not gone away. If anything, the demand has increased because so many people have been restricted to the confines of their homes.

This article discusses the background and the why of Blended / Hybrid meetings.

"Follow by Email" Ends July 2021

 

On the sidebar to the right was an innocuous box that invited you to submit your email address.

When you did that, you received notifications delivered to that address when a new article had been posted to this blog!

That feature has ended.

PGS Volunteer of the Year

Pinellas Genealogy Society

Volunteer of the Year

2020-2021

Playing with Software and Functions and Features "Oh My!"

Playing with Software 

This article is based on a phrase I found in a book by John Cleese titled "creativity" (yes, the title is in lower case). The book was published in 2020 by Crown Publishing company.

The book is actually about the creative process of writing. He tells how specific actions have helped him create the comedy skits he has written.

But there is something I found relevant to people like me who have a technical background! In the book, Cleese describes "play" as...

 

The Email Magic of PLUS ("+")

 Create Unique
Email Address(es)

Here is how to create multiple email addresses and still have only one email mailbox to visit.

Genealogy Societies on EasyNetSites ~ WordPress?

EasyNetSites

is closing

June 30, 2021

This is a HUGE problem for EasyNetSites customers. The customers all appear to be Genealogy Societies in the US.... 

WordPress Virtual Meetup Calendar

WP User Groups
WP Meetup Meetings
Zoom Meetings

One positive benefit to come from the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic is that most WordPress user groups embraced the change to an online format! You can search Meetup.com for the topic "WordPress" to discover that there are over 1,500 WordPress user groups around the world. WordPress.org directly sponsors over half of those groups: www.Meetup.com/pro/WordPress.

Here is a calendar of some upcoming virtual meetings, mostly using Zoom, for WordPress user groups. Attendance varies in size from 5 to 50, and attendees vary in their levels of experience from "Now what?".to writing code without bothering to look it up.

Zoom Training Videos

 

Zoom Training Videos
on YouTube

Rick's curated video list

YouTube has collected thousands of tutorial videos from Zoom meetings and webinars. Some are excellent and some are terrible. Occasionally these YouTube videos even present bad/wrong information. 

Many videos have a tendency to just ramble as the presenter adds their oh-by-the-way comments. While this is great for 1:1 training, the comments may not be appropriate for a tutorial.

I am building a curated list of tutorial videos for Zoom administrators...

WordPress.com Vs WordPress.org ~ Again

Kudos to the WordPress gang in NE Arkansas!

What is the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org?

One of the attendees at last night's meetup was close to my age, and she was trying to understand the computer jargon and Internet terms that were being thrown her way... 

A New Analogy:

A Grocery Store ~ A Restaurant ~ A Kitchen 

WordPress: Learn Gutenberg Blocks II

 

More How To Use
Gutenberg Blocks
in WordPress

I want to share more about how I learned to use Gutenberg...

Book Review: Show Your Work

 

Book Review:

Show Your Work

By Austin Kleon

I do not know who to credit this recommendation, but Thank You! 

When I stumble across something on the Internet that looks interesting, I log onto my local library's website. If it's available, then I request a copy and continue with whatever reading I was doing. Anywhere from a week to a month later my local library sends me a notification that my book is ready to be picked up. Since I'll have several books in the queue, I usually don't remember why a particular book intrigued me. 

This is one of those books!

WordPress: Learn Gutenberg Blocks

 

How To Use
Gutenberg Blocks
in WordPress

I want to share how I learned to use Gutenberg...

The only alternative to Gutenberg and block editing is the WordPress "Classic Editor" It was designed by WordPress contributors and is available as a plugin. 

Unfortunately, support for the Classic Editor will end on December 31, 2021.

What to do by Dec 31?!

SCORE Member-to-Member Connections

Practice

The August meeting for SCORE volunteers included a brief presentation on how to use ZOOM.

Now volunteers can practice what they learned before going "live" with a one-on-one client mentoring session.

[Step 1] Join a meeting that Rick sets up during the week. You do NOT need a ZOOM account to do this.

[Step 2] You set up a meeting and invite Rick. You'll need access to the SCORE Zoom account.

What is the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org?

Do I have WordPress.com or am I using WordPress.org?

This question is frequently asked by people who are beginning their first WordPress website. 

They are excited about creating a blog or opening an online store, and have listened to all the hype about "WordPress."

Newcomers are sometimes confused about where to find "WordPress" and naturally expect to find it at dot-com.

That's the wrong place to look for it. Let me explain: 

The 3 Types of Websites

What Kind of Website
Do You Need?

A Blog? ECommerce? Informational?

ABCInc and the PickRick brand are rebuilding the MyWordPressWebPage website. Our intent is to simply the process, yet provide flexible directions. I visited over a dozen sites (see Bibliography below) to collect and distill this information.

Step 1 at MyWordPressWebPage is the basic building blocks, much like the first two years of college. In college, the freshman and sophomore years contain the core class that are required for any/all majors. For example, Step 1 is where I will list/describe the elements of a web page. Moving along, here are the individual pages for our first deliverable:

Pick Rick | Video Work

Prepend & Append Video Snippets

I continue to explore how to create videos for my "Pick Rick" brand.

I revisited my Wave.video account to select and create video snippets that I can use without further payment or copyright problems. I created a file and downloaded it to my local computer.

Next, I used Windows Move Make to slice it into snippets. Here they are:

WordPress: Gutenberg, Elementor, Divi

Block Editing is a new way to look at data! 

"Block editing" is a new phrase in WordPress, but it actually describes a massive shift in the way we look at content.

The idea of block editors has been around for a long time (a long time in "Internet time" BTW) with page builders and plugins. Divi, Beaver Builder and Elementor are familiar names within the WP community.

What are Rick's Key Words?

SEO: What are Key Words?

"The definition of a keyword is a significant word, or a word used to find information when researching. When you are looking for resume examples and you type "resume examples" into Google, the words "resume examples" are an example of keywords."

Your Dictionary

"Keywords are: words and phrases that identify what people are searching for and words and phrases that describe the topics you write about. In an ideal world, these keywords are the same, bridging the gap between your content and your audience, and helping them to find it."

OptinMonster

Uh-oh: What are my key words?

What is SEO on Google?

Google is
The Book of the Internet

All search engines work alike, but I'm focusing on Google so we don't get into the weeds about the differences between Bing, Yahoo, GoDuckGo or any other search page.

Google visits every site it can find - billions! - and adds every word on every page to a master index. Then it also evaluates the content and context of each page.

What Google considers is actually a trade secret because it wants to return the best, most current information to its visitors.

Google invites you to enter a word, a phrase, or a question in whatever format you choose!

Zoom Meeting Security

Zoom Security Concerns

We are hearing A LOT about security flaws in Zoom. Most headlines are over-hyped to encourage readership. This article explores the major threats and how to easily fix them.

Zoom security is a popular topic because Zoom has become the go-to software-as-a-service application for meetings online.

This article is mostly for people who are hosting/organizing virtual meetings, but it has value for people invited to attend them.

How to Avoid SPAM Email

STOP SPAM!

Here is how to avoid giving your email address to a website that might not stop sending you follow-up, "unsolicited" email. (That's also known as SPAM.)

The Problem

A frustrating practice is that a website will offer you something that you are curious about, but you haven't decided whether you want to have a long-term relationship with that company.

So, they ask for your email address before they give you access to something, whether that something is a TV show or a free PDF booklet. They do that to put you into their "sales funnel" and follow up with emails that contain "Hey buy this..." messages. But...

When you click on "unsubscribe" they ignore your request!