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AH Bloggers
Welcome to the AussieHomeschool hosted blogging community!
So, you want to start your own blog, hosted at AussieHomeschoolBlog? Hopefully you'll find the information here. It's fairly straightforward if you just follow the prompts, but if you have any problems, please contact the Site Admin and they'll get back to you as soon as humanly possible.
- Go here to signup for a new blog
- Enter a username and valid email address. Click next. (Your username will also be your blog domain, so choose carefully. You may like to use the same username as your username at AussieHomeschool)
- Type a blog tagline title and select your privacy options. Click next.
- Your new blog must be activated. So check your email and click the link provided. It should arrive within 30 minutues although it is usually within seconds.
- If you do not activate your blog within two days, you will have to sign up again.
- Check the junk email or spam folder of your email client. Sometime emails wind up there by mistake.
- Upon activation of your blog, you will be shown your temporary password. You will need to copy this or write it down.
- You can then login to your blog.
What next? Change your password to something secure but also something that you will remember! Do this in
Users > User Profile.
Then, you might like to look around the inside of your blog and see what else you can play, er work with.
Users > Your User Profile - set the user information you want published on your site.
Options > General - set your site name and other site information.
Options > Writing - set the settings of your Write Post screen
Options > Reading - set how many posts to show on the front page and in categories and your feed requirements
Options > Discussion - Turn on or off comments and set how to handle them
Manage > Posts - After you have written a few posts, this is where you will manage them by editing or deleting.
Presentation > Themes - maybe change the look of your site?
Manage > Pages - add a Page or two like "About Us" or "Contact Me" Write >
Write Post - start adding content to your site Recent Posts
To view a quick list of all recent activity across the site, please use the Sitewide: Recent Posts page.
Blog Owners
If you know of a theme or a plugin that you need or would like on your blog, please let me know and I'll try and organise it for you.
New themes added!
We’ve added some new themes for users to choose from. Yes, I know there are already plenty (currently 118) to choose from but the ones from Template-Lite are really beautiful.
Click on the thumbnail image to see a slightly larger picture of the theme.
Aqua decor
Exotic Vacation
Girly nature
Grunge Style
Letter Frame (beautiful)
Paper Craft
Photographic Film
Ink Stain
Watercolor (nice)
Wooden fence
Coffee Desk has been updated!
As usual though, if you do manage to find a template that you really want to use and it is not already available, please email me with the URL & name of the theme and I can add it to the collection.
Adding videos to your posts
Hi Aussie Homeschool bloggers! You will notice a new plugin that is available in your plugin list. Simply follow these instructions:
- When in your admin backend, go to ‘Plugins’ - Installed.
- Find the plugin called Smart YouTube. Click to activate.
- Then navigate to Settings-->SmartYoutube to configure the plugin.
To use the video in your posts, paste YouTube video URL with httpv:// (notice the ‘v’). Important: The URL should just be copied into your post normally and the letter ‘v’ added, do not create a clickable link!
Example:
If you want to embed high quality video (for videos that have them) use httpvh:// instead (Video High).
If you have need for a plugin, function or feature that you do not have, please let admin know and we can consider the viability of adding it for you and other users!
Using Akismet - spam guard
Tired of dealing with spam and unwanted comments? You have a new plugin in your backend administration that allows you to moderate spam and deal with comments.
Whilst in your admin area, click into the ‘Plugins’–> Installed area. The, you will see a plugin called Akismet. Click to activate it. You will then need to register for a wordpress API key and enter the key into the Akismet configuration page.
For many people, Akismet will greatly reduce or even completely eliminate the comment and trackback spam you get on your site. If one does happen to get through, simply mark it as “spam” on the moderation screen and Akismet will learn from the mistakes. If you don’t have a WordPress.com account yet, you can get one at WordPress.com.
You might also like to read the following post: Spam but not ham
Hope this helps,
Susan
test post
this is a test…to see if site tags work
Spam: not ham
If you’ve blogged for even 24 hours, you most likely know what spam is. Spam is an unsolicited commercial message, or something you didn’t ask for trying to sell you something.
So what does this have to do with blogs? Well just like you can get spam messages in your inbox, people will leave spam comments on your blog. However unlike email spam where the target is you, comment spam generally targets search engines.
Why on earth would a spammer target a search engine on your blog? Let’s start from the beginning. Several years ago Google pioneered a search technique called PageRank. Basically what it does is, in addition to looking at the content of a page they index, they also look at who links to a page and what that link says. This technology is what made Google very good at returning relevant results and made it the most popular search engine today. Because their ranking system relies so heavily on PageRank people can sometimes game the system in what’s called “Google Bombing.” A google bomb is when a large number of different websites link to a page with the same link text to influence the ranking of that page for a search term.
This brings us back to the spammers. A spammer might have a site that sells a ‘certain type of pill’ and wants to be at the top of a search for taht ‘cerain type of pill’ on Google, so to create the effect of a google bomb they leave comments on hundreds or thousands of weblogs linking to their site with the link text “pill”. They don’t really care if you see it, in fact they’d rather you didn’t because you would delete it, they just want the search engine to see it when they index your page.
Comment Moderation is very effective in addressing unwanted comments. The best defense against comment spam is just watching your comments. Under Manage → Comments it shows a listing of the latest comments on any post and you can quickly scan the comment activity on your site. The faster you respond to comment spam on your site, the less likely the spammers will return.
On the Combating Comment Spam page you will find a list of more proactive measures against comment spam.
Stealth Spam
A new technique is the spammers will leave a perfectly normal-looking comment except for the commenter’s URI or name. The best way to watch out for this is to visit the URIs of people who leave comments on your blog. (This is a good practice anyway.) If one looks suspicious, either delete the comment entirely or leave the comment and delete the URI.
Another way of stealth is to use a div-tag around a bundle of hundreds of links. This becomes more and more common because many software displays directly the given HTML tags and not the HTML code. To avoid this the software must “strip-out”, other word: filter the HTML tags while inserting the comment into the database.
The Good News
The good news is that your WP hosted blog at AussieHomeschool is protected by a wonderful program. Some blogs have been knowen to be hit by several hundred spammers per day…so in the light of that, your anti-spamming program works quite well, eh?
- Why are they spamming me?
- What happens to comments that are marked as “Spam”?
- I have spam appear as soon as I post!
- Why is every comment going into the moderation queue?
- I have disabled comments, but comments continue to be posted
- I have disabled trackbacks, but trackbacks continue to be posted
- This spam stopping stuff is very useful, isn’t it?
Akismet Comment Spam Fighter
Current versions of WordPress come with Akismet installed by default. Akismet uses a unique algorithm combined with a community-created database to “learn” which comments are comment spam and which are legitimate.
To enable Akismet on your WordPress blog, go to the Plugins panel and activate the Plugin. A menu is added to the Comments Panel and holds a list of “caught” comment spam.
If comment spam gets through Akismet’s net, mark it as comment spam in your Comments Panel. Do not delete it. By marking it “comment spam”, the information is sent to Akismet and added to the community-created database.
Frequently, check through the caught comment spam in the Akismet Panel to look for false/negatives, legitimate comment spam that has been caught by Akismet. Mark it as Not Spam and click Despam at the bottom of the page to remove these comments from the list.
My Comments Get Caught By Akismet
Akismet learns by those who mark comment spam as comment spam and legitimate spam is despammed. If your comments are being caught by Akismet, remove them from the Akismet Panel. It might take two or three times, but it will learn and automatically not designate your comments as spam.
Commenters on your blog may have their comments caught by Akismet. If you do not regularly check your Akismet Panel, have an easy way of allowing readers to email you if their comment did not appear.
With updates to the database and major changes to the software, this process may have to be repeated.
If you continue to have problems with Akismet catching your comments or too many of your readers’ comments, contact Akismet for more assistance.
Combating Comment Spam FAQ
- Why are they spamming me?
- Where can I find WordPress anti-spam plugins?
- I have a problem with a WordPress Plugin
- What happens to comments that are marked as “Spam”?
- I have spam appear as soon as I post!
- Why is every comment going into the moderation queue?
- I have disabled comments, but comments continue to be posted
- I have disabled trackbacks, but trackbacks continue to be posted
- This spam stopping stuff is very useful, isn’t it?
Default Comment Spam Tools
The following are the default comment spam tools that come with every installation of WordPress, in addition to the Akismet WordPress Plugin.
Number of Links in Posts
To change the number of links in comment posts, which may help stop comment spammers who include dozens of links in their comment posts, you can change the setting for the number of links permitted in a comment.
- Go to the Options > Discussion panel.
- Scroll down to Comment Moderation.
- In the section which covers the number of links in a post, it is set to 2 by default. You could lower to one.
NOTE: Do not set this to zero or leave the field blank. It will send every comment to moderation — not the desired effect.
Spam Words
If you encounter a word or phrase that is not in the Spam Words list, you can add it. You can also add the spam words found on the Spam Words list to the list that comes with your WordPress installation.
- Go to the Options > Discussion > Comment Moderation panel.
- In the Spam Words textarea box, you can add additional spam words.
- Added words are to be on a single line with a single line break after them with no spaces in between the words. If you include a blank line, every single comment will be moderated.
- When a comment contains any of these words in its content, name, URI, e-mail, or IP, WordPress will hold it in the moderation queue.
Comment Blacklist
Included on your Options > Discussion panel is a section called the Comment Blacklist. This is a list of words completely blacklisted from your blog.
Be very careful what you add here. If a comment matches something here it will be completely nuked and there will be no notification. These “nuked” comments will not appear on your blog, but they will remain in your database marked as [spam]. Comments that are marked as [spam] are held in your database to educate “intelligent” anti-spam plugins, such as Akismet.
Choose your blacklist words wisely!
Remember that partial words can match, so if there is any chance something here might match it would be better to put it in the moderation box. Blacklisting a word such as tramadol will automatically delete any comments containing tramadol, tramadols, bigtramadol, etc. But, blacklisting a word such as ass will automatically delete comments containing ass, asses, assistance, passionate, assumption, etc.
Moderate All Comments
Depending upon the amount of comments and control you want over comments on your WordPress site, you may want to moderate all comments on your site.
In the Options > Discussion panel, check the box next to An administrator must approve the comment (regardless of any matches below).
Pre-approve Comments from Old Commenters
You can also set your Options > Discussion panel options to allow previously approved comments to avoid moderation. Check Comment author must have a previously approved comment.
I hope this helps you understand spam and therefore equip you with a few tools in how to deal with it. More information can be found at the WP Codex.
Using images in your posts
Using images in posts
Sometimes you need to edit an image for use in your WordPress blog but you might not need (or you might not have access to) a high-powered image editing application like Photoshop or Gimp. Maybe you want to post a smaller version of an image you’ve already used in a previous post or maybe you want to “zoom in” to a specific area of an image to add emphasis.
The first thing you should consider is the “look” of the images on your page. Not what the images are of, but the general look of how they flow and interact with the rest of the content on your page. Wrapping Text Around Images helps you to begin to understand how images interact with the text around them, changing the margins, padding and borders around the images within the content. It will also help you understand how to create captions under your images.
The next thing to consider is the size of the images. There are two ways of actually sizing an image. It is either the size that it is, or a thumbnail link which, when clicked, takes the user to a new page with an enlarged image of the graphic.
Inserting Images Into Posts
Inserting an image into a post still seems to confuse a lot of people.
There are 2 steps involved to inserting an image into a post. First, the image file must be uploaded onto your web server before it can be inserted into a post. The second step is to actually insert the image into the post in the appropriate location.
The simplest way to do this is to use the “Add Media” function on the post screen (beside the “Visual” and “HTML” tabs). Choose the appropriate button depending on whether you are adding photos, videos, audio, or miscellaneous media (e.g. PDF files). This method will complete both steps as outlined above.
In the “From Computer” area of the screen you need to upload the desired image file. NOTE: Before hitting the “Upload from Computer” button it is recommended that you select the “Browser Uploader” instead of using the default Flash Uploader. After selecting the “Browser Uploader”, hit the “Browse…” button and choose the desired image file on your computer. Then, hit the “Upload” button. Your image file is now on your web server.
Make sure you give the image an appropriate title, as well as a relevant description if desired. Choose the desired alignment and size, and hit the “insert into post” button. Your image is now inserted into the post at the location where your cursor was last active.
Every time you upload an image to your web server it is added to the “Gallery” of images that are available for that blog. If you want to insert the same image into another post go to the “Gallery”, hit the “Show” link, and then follow the same instructions to insert that image into another location or post.
Image Size and Quality
The size and quality of an image for use on a web page is determined by a variety of things.
Physical Size The physical size of an image is based upon two things: The size of the image on the screen and the file size. Generally, the file size is treated as a different issue. File Size This is the size of the file on your hard drive or server. Resolution Resolution refers to the number of pixels in an image. Resolution is sometimes identified by the width and height of the image as well as the total number of pixels in the image. File Type There are basically X image types popularly found on the Internet: jpeg,gif,png and (for favicons (the icons next to the address)) ico.
The physical size of the image is information we need to know in order to determine how much “space” will the image occupy on a web page. If your WordPress Theme features a fixed width content area of 600 pixels and the image you want to use is 800, the image will push the sidebar and layout of your web page around, messing up your design. Images within that 600 pixel width need to be restricted to that maximum width in order to protect the layout of your page. It’s up to you to determine what size they should be from there, matching the image to your overall layout and styles.
File size dictates the time it takes to load your page, the larger the file size, often increased because of a high image resolution quality, the longer it will take to load. People often don’t have the patience to wait through long web page loads, so keeping your file sizes low speeds up your web page access times. Typically, large high quality images should be kept between 100K and 60K. Smaller images should be closer to 30K and lower.
The resolution of the image dictates its clarity. The higher the resolution, though, the larger the file size, so you have to make a compromise between quality and file size.
Luckily, the various file types most commonly used on the Internet have compression features. When you save the file as one of these types, it condenses or compresses the data information in the image file. Internet browsers can decompress this information to display the image on the screen. Some graphic software programs allow you to set the compression rate to control the quality of the image (and file size) at the time you save it. Depending upon your use of the images on your site, you may have to experiment with this to get the right ratio that keeps the resolution quality good while maintaining a small file size.
Websites use four common file types. The end of a filename (called the extension) tells what type it is. One type, ico, is to make a favicon file — but this is usually only done when a website is first set up. The other three types are used for general images:
- jpg (JPEG) is good for photographs. Saving a photo as jpg removes detail from the photo. Good photo editors let you control how much detail is removed (the “compression”). Different photos need different compression; doing this carefully and viewing the result can give you a usable photo with a small file size.
- gif can be poor for photographs. It’s better for line art, like logos, with solid areas of the same color.
- png is for both photographs and line art. It compresses photos without losing detail, but usually makes larger photo files than JPEGs. Some older browsers don’t completely support png, though.
If you aren’t sure which file type is best for a particular image, try saving the image in more than one type and comparing the file sizes. Using the right type can make a big difference! There’s more information in Sitepoint’s GIF-JPG-PNG What’s the Difference article.
Video tutorial: wrapping text around images
Want a video tutorial to learn how to wrap your text around an image? Visit the following link and watch a tutorial:
Video Tutorials
Wordpress users! Need help? The great thing about the blogging platform, WordPress, is that the community are so generous and giving. There is so much free help available for WordPress users that it makes the mind boggle.
Here are a few online video tutorials for basic WordPress use.
· WordPress Overview ›
· How to edit Posts/Pages ›
· How widgets work ›
· WordPress Settings Overview ›
· How to login to WP Dashboard ›
A few WP video tutorials, from SiteGround.
· Getting started with WordPress › .
· Arrange your blog posts in categories › .
· Manage comments in WordPress ›.
· How to change the theme ›
· How to install WordPress plugins ›
· Create a backup of WordPress ›
· How to upgrade the WordPress version
More Advanced WP Tutorials
· Your Extended Profile (more info than Name, Email, etc.) ›.
· Random Quotes › .
· Using CSS and Blockquotes ›
· Simple Page Edit in WordPress ›.
· Lost Password, Update User Info ›
· Explanation of Categories, Posts, and Pages ›.
Your own theme
If you setting up a blog hosted here at AussieHomeschool and you would like a different theme (look) you can leave your comment below.
There are hundreds of WordPress Themes to choose from. Do a Google search for “Free Wordpress themes” or use the Wordpress Theme Viewer (widget ready is best). Remember people may want to print things you write so a white background for the blog entries works best.
Please leave in the comment below or email me with details:
- 1. Your blog name
- 2. Name of your theme choice
- 3. URL where I can download the theme
Please don’t email me the theme as there are special considerations that need to be considered so I will need to look at the place where the theme came from. not all free themes are safe.
Blog themes
Finding a blog theme to fit your personality is fun. There are hundreds available just by logging in to your control panel. You can change your theme at any time so you can blog now and your blog entries will be updated as you change your theme. however, you might like to have a theme that we haven’t uploaded yet. You can begin by looking for a theme here. Once you find your theme we have to upload it to our site.
When you find a theme put your request in the comments below or email Susan using the contact form. Include the theme name and URL so we can upload it to our site. You’ll be able to change it from your admin panel.
Once you are familiar with how WordPress works, it’s time to get creative and start customizing. You can do whatever you want, adding and subtracting, perfecting and scrambling your site at will. The amount of effort you put into the site is now up to you. You can work with the two WordPress Themes that came with the installation, or seek out another Theme that better meets your needs. You can totally customize all the links and information, or get serious and completely re-design the entire site to do whatever you want. You have the basics, the rest is up to your imagination.
- Finding a WordPress Theme
- Look for one that better suits the look you desire on your site.
- Customizing the Look
- When you are ready to plunge into the code, you can customize the look and layout of the site through CSS and modifing the Themes (or create your own).
- Enhance Your Site with Plugins
- Plugins add function and sometimes fun to your site. There are hundreds of different plugins from adding custom links like related articles to your sidebar to adding weather reports.
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WordPress Themes
There are hundreds of WordPress Themes to choose from. All do basically the same thing but graphically present the information in a myriad of ways. Choose a few that look interesting to you, and meet your audience’s needs and your desires, and then test drive them following the test drive instructions above. Click through the whole site, the categories and archives as well as the individual posts to see how the Theme handles each one. The look may be nice on the front page, but if it handles things in a way you don’t like on the single post, then you will have to dig into the code and make changes. Not ready for that, try another theme.
If you run into problems, check out the Codex’s Troubleshooting Themes article.
WordPress Plugins
Plugin Panel
WordPress Plugins are also known as add-ons or extensions. They are software scripts that add functions and events to your website. They cover the gamut from up-to-date weather reports to simple organization of your posts and categories. Plugins are designed by volunteer contributors and enthusiasts who like challenges and problem solving. They are usually fairly simple to install through the WordPress Admin Plugin panel, just follow the instructions provided by the plugin author. Remember, these are free and non-essential. If you have any problems with plugins, contact the plugin author’s website or plugin source first, then search the Internet for help with that specific plugin, and if you haven’t found a solution, then visit the WordPress forums for more help.
- WordPress Plugin Repository (http://www.wp-plugins.org)
- WordPress Plugins (http://www.wp-plugins.net)
- Managing Plugins
- Plugins
What you do from here is up to you, but here are a few places to take that first step beyond the basics:
Subscribe Options
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Site Wide Activity
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smiley77 wrote on their own wire: 3 months, 3 weeks ago
This is the day that the Lord has made.I will rejoice and TRY VERY HARD to be glad in it!!
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admin wrote a new blog post: New themes added! 5 months ago
We’ve added some new themes for users to choose from. Yes, I know there are already plenty (currently 118) to choose from but the ones from Template-Lite are really beautiful.
Click on the thumbnail image to see a slightly larger picture of the theme.As usual though, if you do manage to find a template that you [...]
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Recent Blog Posts
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New themes added!
We’ve added some new themes for users to choose from. Yes, I know there are already plenty (currently 118) to choose from but the ones from Template-Lite are really beautiful.
Click on the thumbnail image to see a slightly larger picture of the theme.As usual though, if you do manage to find a template that you [...]
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