First of if you search around the web for advice on how to move a WordPress blog you’ll probably get a recommendation to backup all the site files and databases, transfer the site files, and then restore the database on the other server.

While this works, I think it’s unnecessarily complicated, especially if you are transferring a small site (i.e., with 300 posts or fewer, and no special sections like a forum). Not to mention that playing around with databases is always tricky, and if you are not tech-savvy you might screw things up.

A better and simpler solution in my opinion is to use the Import/Export feature on WordPress. Here’s the step by step guide:

1. Login via FTP to your old (i.e., the one you are moving from) WP install and download the whole /wp-conten/t directory.
2. Login to your old WordPress dashboard and use “Export” function (located under “Tools”). Choose the “All Content” option, to export both posts and pages.
3. Put a fresh WP install on your new server/hosting plan.
4. Delete the /wp-content/ folder on your new server, and upload the one you had downloaded from your old server.
5. If you had changed the “Permalink Structure” on your old server, do that as well on the new one.
6. Now login to the WordPress dashboard on your new server and use the “Import” function (again under “Tools”) to import all your posts and pages.
7. Check that everything is working fine by opening the homepage of your new WP install (you can do this using the IP address of your hosting account). If everything is working fine update the nameservers of your domain name to point to your new server).

This method is easier in my opinion, and it has one big advantage: you start with a clean install, meaning that any hacks or compromises you might have had on your old WP install will be gone.

Next week I’ll post about moving larger WordPress sites. Those might not work with this method because your export XML file will be too large, and you might not be able to upload it via the WordPress import feature.

source form: dailyblogtips

The data exchanged through Fasal has helped more than half a million Indian farmers fine tune their agricultural procedures so that they can get their crop to the right market at the right time and get the best price for it. Bloggers can take a page from Intuit’s altruism to do good and benefit from an overall aura.

1. Align with a customized fundraising site

Bloggers are accustomed to driving traffic to their own blogs so it might sound like sacrilege to direct readers to external sites, but when it’s to URLs likecrowdrise.com (an online fundraising platform) there’s a definite upside.

You can create your own fundraising pages on the site, select from over a million charities to determine which one you want your readers to support, and share all this information on your social network presence.

2. Assist a local cause

It’s easy to locate in your local area a cause you can help with, whether it’s serving meals to the homeless or holding a bake sale to get new equipment for the high school’s chem lab.

Local initiatives are far less complex to set up than any national appeals so you will be able to organize it all in your spare time with the help of friends and neighbors both on your social networks and face to face. You might not directly get more readers, but the halo of being a good citizen will pay clear dividends for your blog in the long run.

3. Raise funds for a worthwhile charity

There are very few activities that any blogger can participate in which provide such tangible benefits as being identified as a committed raiser of awareness and funds for a charity with a cause which resonates with your readers. Each blog is different and thus the non-profit organization you align with should be relevant to your field.

If your subject is pets, provide assistance to an animal rights or wildlife charity; if you deal with electronics, raise funds to help poverty-stricken Third World recycling workers who live in unbelievably toxic environments; and if your topic is food, adopt a child through a non-profit which provides nutrition in the world’s poorest areas.

4. Develop an app

You don’t have to write a smartphone blog to know that apps are hot, and the development of a specific, basic app is a possibility for any blogger… even if you don’t have a clue about programming.

There are many sites which allow you to contract freelance programmers around the world to work on a contract basis and you can get an reasonable app developed for pocket money. The app shouldn’t directly promote your blog but do some good for someone. Maybe set aside a penny for a charity each time an NFC payment is made, or show on a map where the nearest donation box for clothes and household effects is located.

5. Convert reader activities to $

A site called bettertheworld.com allows anyone to raise money for any given non-profit organization by simply downloading a sidebar and surfing the web. The bar displays relevant ads on the pages and each click puts much-needed cash into the charity’s coffers. Your blog readers and social media followers are navigating all over the web anyway, so why not help convert this activity to help a valid fundraising cause?

Doing good not only makes you feel good, but it helps your readers feel good about your blog as well. Bloggers everywhere are discovering the value of altruism. Will you be the next blog writing adopter of the philosophy of “doing good is good for everyone?”

source form: dailyblogtips

Fiction Plot Structure

Nearly all fiction, except the occasional experimental types, follows the same basic pattern:

1 – Status Quo

This is how things are, the basic explanation of the current state of things that sets the stage. Whether implied by the narration and dialog or spelled out clearly in an info dump, this part is important because it provides the context for all that will follow.

2 – Conflict!

This is the starting element of the story, the thing that introduces the departure from the status quo. Something has changed, and for whatever reason someone in the story is opposed to this change, and has to fight it.

3 – Complication/Rising Action

A conflict isn’t much entertainment by itself, particularly if the conflict is as simple as: I wanted to go to the movie, but my tire went flat (the conflict), so I changed it (resolved). Much more entertaining would be: I wanted to go to the movie, but my tire went flat and as I was changing it I realized a dust storm was approaching (complication).

Complications that make the conflict more interesting are the spice of a story, and drive what is called the “rising action,” or the gradual increase of tension as the story moves toward resolution.

4 – Climax

Everything has come to a head. The facts are all laid out, the conflict can get no more complicated and a big definitive choice must be made. This is the most satisfying part of the story, and also the part that is easiest to mess up and let everyone down.

5 – Resolution

Wrapping things up, explaining the new status quo. This part is simple enough, and should follow on naturally from the climax.

Now, how can you borrow from this structure in order to make your blog more interesting? After all, a blog isn’t a fictional piece, it’s driven by facts, right?

Well, just because a story is nonfictional doesn’t mean that it cannot have a narrative. Many of the best true stories are just that, STORIES. Take the story of Woodward and Bernstein as they unraveled the mystery surrounding the Watergate break in. You had death threats, attacks, a top-secret source named after a recent pornographic movie — it was practically a thriller film in its own right, and indeed became the basis of one called All the President’s Men.

Each of these elements can be readily worked into a blog post. Virtually every post out there that deals with a narrative of events has to go into a little bit of information about how things have begun, or how they have led up to the events described in the story. Conflict and complication often play out in such posts by going into the details of who said what, and what other people said against the initial quote or in support of it. If a story has ended, you have the resolution option to work with.

Of course, there is nothing that says you have to include all of these elements in a single post, either. Perhaps the best way is to actually follow a particular story for several posts, be it a few days or a months-long odyssey.

This is best done with news-style developing stories, such as following a court case, or an investigation into something dramatic and revealing. Or it might follow a blogger’s personal journey through a difficult struggle such as returning to school or undergoing therapy of a sort following an accident. The point is, with the narrative spread over a number of posts, you can create that sense of rising action, and highlight the individual elements of a good plot much more effectively and easily than if you try to cram the elements into a single post.

So the next time you have a blog post that you think makes a compelling story, treat it like it IS a story. Identify the arc of the rising action, the conflict and complications and present the narrative in a way that makes the readers want to read it — even makes them feel a bit naughty for trying to read ahead to see what happens next.

source form: dailyblogtips

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