Blogger. Gamer. Moodler. Sinfonian. (Avid) WordPress User.

Screencast: Moving WordPress to Another Host

ScreenCast, WordPress

People change web hosts all the time. The reasons for this varies, but almost always come down to the user not being satisfied with the service in which they are paying. I’ve been a Bluehost customer for nearly four years now. I’ve been extremely satisfied with their service. I’ve even had a few others join based on my testimony! However, sometimes clients have their own hosting service and after building out the site on my account, I may have to move the WordPress installation.

Two weeks ago, I had to do just that. The screencast below contains steps that I follow each time I move from one host to another, regardless the source and destination. If you have any questions, please let me know in the comments!

Tech used:

New to Bluehost? Install WordPress!

ScreenCast, WordPress

New to Bluehost and want to get started with WordPress? This screen cast is for you! Since I have been helping out individuals on Twitter that are new to Bluehost and new to self-installed WordPress, I decided to create this nice little video that will get you up and running on your Bluehost account with a WordPress installation!

Watch the video to find out how!

Please Pardon my Mess!

Announcements
WHOA Brett!

You have very little content!!

Relax. Everything will be fine. Breathe. As you can see I have very little content. I have wiped my database (no worries,  I always backup first!) and wanted to start fresh. I will re-add those that I deem appropriate and beneficial to my site in the coming days. Now what made me want to start afresh with a brand new theme?

Find out why

Planning a Site Structure

Web Design

Most of the web design techniques I perform are either self-taught or a process I read offline. 90% of what I do day-to-day is through past mistakes and triumphs.

When planning a structure of a site, I have to write out (yes, with a pen and paper) the structure of the site. I miss the days of Frontpage that would create a site tree demonstrating how pages link to one another. Once that is complete, I structure out the templates (if I am building them from scratch).

Years ago, when I upgraded the City of Duluth, Georgia to WordPress, I followed these very same steps. It is a document I always keep handy if I find pages are filled loosely.

The Duluth site was such a massive undertaking due to each section displaying its own sidebar content. Because of this I had created 16 page templates just for the departments alone, not counting the custom post types for Public Notices, Press Releases, and etc.. The good news in the most recent version of WordPress (version 3.1) releasing soon, it took more extra time to make sure that the site template is absolutely correct and working before I move forward with any stripped version. Items I have planned for next week are:

  • Submenus are being handled from custom menus.
  • Blogging templates completed.
  • Restyle and redo the footer.
  • Style for forms.

Custom Post Types

WordPress

It’s not secret that I will most likely type about WordPress on this blog. It’s the CMS of choice and I just love making websites with it. When it comes to putting a site together, the best part is planning out if there is a need for any Custom Post Types. All a CPT is, is an extra content type that may be needed for the site. For instance, say I run a blog that I also run reviews on movies. Instead of lumping the reviews together with blog posts I can keep them on separate “pages” on my site.

I get the chance to do the same for a project coming up in Webpages. Basically for departmental blogs a request has been made to allow a separate section for Faculty Posts. Granted there are two ways of handling this. One, use FeedWordPress and just use the RSS links for each site and drop them on a page, or create a CPT and a login to that particular blog site that allows those faculty to login, post a blog entry to that CPT and then it will appear on that site. I still need to research the functionality of FeedWordPress, but I hope to have some use out of it.

Installing WordPress on Bluehost

ScreenCast, WordPress

Made this video for a friend, the results may be different per Host. This is an overview of the process in which I follow.

Watch the Screen-Cast

What makes up a City website?

Web Design

While going through some redesigning of my own, I feel to look inside the designs of others’ sites to figure out what I really need to do with the redesign of … City of Duluth’s site.

I was hired by the City of Duluth back in 2003, at that time I knew basic HTML and the ability to make sites in Frontpage. It was only after managing close to 200 pages of static HTML that I wanted to learn more to help manage my job and the site better.
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Great Resources – 2009 Edition

Web Design

Recently, a friend has asked me to gather a list of all sites I visit frequently. I think that sounds fair enough, but there are many places I visit if to gather ideas for websites I make or just find out what is going on in the business. So let’s get to it!

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When the Fox ate the Internet

Web Design, ,

Tonight a dear friend had sent me an IM celebrating she has finally made the switch. The switch I made several years and haven’t looked back since! The jump from Internet Explorer to Firefox. That got me to thinking, what does Firefox really have over Internet Explorer 7? (Besides displaying web standards more efficiently!)

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