Reusable blocks are one of my favorite features of the new WordPress editor. They can save a ton of time and can be used for so many things. This post is about ways to use and how to make reusable blocks in WordPress. But what is a reusable block? It’s a set of elements you […]
WordPress
How to update plugins without breaking your blog
Updating plugins can be a little nerve-wracking, especially if you’ve had a problem before. Ideally, you click the update button when you see it, and your blog only improves. That’s not always how it works though. Updating could do something as small as losing the functionality, to as big as the dreaded “White Screen of […]
How to show your picture automatically in blog comments
When you’re setting up a new blog, there’s a little detail that makes a big difference…but it’s often overlooked. It’s having your picture show in the comments section of each post! It’s always good to reply to your visitors when they take the time to comment on one of your blog posts. But if you […]
What is FTP access and why does your developer need it?
Your website–just like all of the internet–is made up of pages of code. Those pages get filed into folders so we developers can keep everything neat and tidy. It’s your internet browser (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, hopefully not Internet Explorer) that translates those thousands of lines of code to an interactive and good-looking website. So to […]
My #1 plugin to speed up blogs
For bloggers who want to go pro (or already are), site speed is HUGE. And it’s one of the things I’m asked to help with on blogs weekly. There are SO many factors that go into site speed, and I plan on blogging about a lot of them, but I wanted to start with my […]
How to add categories to your blog
Categories are super important to your blog. Unfortunately, almost nobody tells that to new bloggers (especially those “Start a blog in 20 minutes!” posts). Special side-note request since I can’t help it: please don’t ever start your blog in 20 minutes. Take a proper amount of time, do research, and plan before you dive in […]
The difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org
Don’t care about details? Skip to the 2 second summary. It’s a little tricky to understand at first, but I’m going to try to make the difference between wordpress.com and wordpress.org easy. Let’s start at the beginning. Forget about .com and .org right now and let’s talk about WordPress alone. What is WordPress? WordPress itself […]
Black Friday Deals to Upgrade Your Blog
Guys. Does your blog need any upgrades? 4 of my very favorite website and business tools are having huge Black Friday sales. And I may be jealous if you get to take advantage. Here they are (and they are affiliate links): SiteGround If your site is slow, if you’re having security issues, or are just […]
How to add meta tags or tracking codes to your blog
At some point, you will receive a meta tag or tracking code that you will need to add to your blog. If your site is built on the Genesis framework, as all the ones I build are, adding that code is super-easy. In your dashboard, just hover over “Appearance” then click “Customize.” In there, scroll […]
How to get rid of “The post appeared first on”
You got your RSS feed set up (woohoo!). But when you test it, there’s a line at the bottom that says “The post appeared first on” It shows in your MailChimp emails, MailerLite, in feed readers. And it’s annoying. Mostly because you can’t where it’s coming from. So where did the text come from? The Yoast […]
The easiest way to display a series on your blog
A blog series is a great way to build engagement and create repeat visitors for your blog. What exactly is a series? Remember how TV shows used to occasionally end an episode in “To be continued…”? And then you couldn’t wait until next week to see what happened? Each episode was still an episode, but those […]
The Best Recipe Plugin for Food Bloggers
Before the latest WordPress update, there were several decent recipe plugins to choose from. After the update though, most stopped working and the developers didn’t want to go through the work of updating them. (This can be one of the struggles with free plugins in any category.) Thankfully, there are a couple of good ones […]
How to change your DNS information
Before I tell you how to change your domain name’s DNS info, I want to give you a quick explanation of what it all means. That way what you’re doing will make sense and if the particular company you’re using does things a little different than my instructions, you’ll be able to figure it out […]
Move contact form labels to inside fields
Moving the labels on a contact form to inside the fields is as easy as replacing the word “Label” with the word “Placeholder.” Really. We’ll use a simple Jetpack contact form as our example, but it’s basically the same procedure for MailChimp sign up forms or any other forms you can access the HTML or […]
Why aren’t my latest blog posts showing?
On average, I get an email about once a month asking “Why aren’t my latest blog posts showing on my home page? The blog post is there, but it won’t show up on the home page.” It’s a maddening issue that is becoming a pretty common problem. Every single time someone has asked me that, […]
How to use affiliate links
I am asked fairly regularly by clients about affiliate links, what they are and how to use them, so here are the basics of how it works, along with my recommendations. When you are an affiliate for a company, you advertise their products. If someone purchases something, or signs up for something from your advertising, […]
How to add an image to your sidebar
There are several plugins out there that make it easy to add an image to your sidebar. But they’re pretty unnecessary. Adding an image to your sidebar only takes one little tiny line of code. You can just copy and paste it and then add your image. No plugin required. I’ll walk you through it in the video, or you can read the step-by-step below.
(Click the image to view the post!)
How to install a WordPress child theme
Puppy shenanigans included, a WordPress theme and child theme can be installed in less than 5 minutes. Watch the video below for step-by-step instructions. Or if you’d prefer to read, scroll below the video.
Click on the picture to keep reading 🢥