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WordPress: PHP 4 and MySQL 4 End of Life Announcement

Our approach with WordPress has always been to make it run on common server configurations. We want users to have flexibility when choosing a host for their precious content. Because of this strategy, WordPress runs pretty much anywhere. Web hosting platforms, however, change over time, and we occasionally are able to reevaluate some of the requirements for running WordPress. Now is one of those times. You probably guessed it from the title — we’re finally ready to announce the end of support for PHP 4 and MySQL 4!

First up, the announcement that developers really care about. WordPress 3.1, due in late 2010, will be the last version of WordPress to support PHP 4.

For WordPress 3.2, due in the first half of 2011, we will be raising the minimum required PHP version to 5.2. Why 5.2? Because that’s what the vast majority of WordPress users are using, and it offers substantial improvements over earlier PHP 5 releases. It is also the minimum PHP version that the Drupal and Joomla projects will be supporting in their next versions, both due out this year.

The numbers are now, finally, strongly in favor of this move. Only around 11 percent of WordPress installs are running on a PHP version below 5.2. Many of them are on hosts who support PHP 5.2 — users merely need to change a setting in their hosting control panel to activate it. We believe that percentage will only go down over the rest of the year as hosting providers realize that to support the newest versions of WordPress (or Drupal, or Joomla), they’re going to have to pull the trigger.

In less exciting news, we are also going to be dropping support for MySQL 4 after WordPress 3.1. Fewer than 6 percent of WordPress users are running MySQL 4. The new required MySQL version for WordPress 3.2 will be 5.0.15.

WordPress users will not be able to upgrade to WordPress 3.2 if their hosting environment does not meet these requirements (the built-in updater will prevent it). In order to determine which versions your host provides, we’ve created the Health Check plugin. You can download it manually, or use this handy plugin installation tool I whipped up. Right now, Health Check will only tell you if you’re ready for WordPress 3.2. In a future release it will provide all sorts of useful information about your server and your WordPress install, so hang on to it!

In summary: WordPress 3.1, due in late 2010, will be the last version of WordPress to support PHP 4 and MySQL 4. WordPress 3.2, due in the first half of 2011, will require PHP 5.2 or higher, and MySQL 5.0.15 or higher. Install the Health Check plugin to see if you’re ready!

IgniteHost supports both PHP 5.2 or higher and MySQL 5.0.15 or higher.

Being the most popular blogging platform in the world has its advantages.  There are millions of individuals and businesses that are using a WordPress blog.  Those blogs are the stepping stones to promoting a business or a cause. 

Plugins make those blogs even more powerful and there are over 10,000 to choose from.  The best thing is they are all free and install in just minutes!

We’ll cover some of the best plugins out there that make your blog more attractive to search engines, one that let you send a newsletter and others that will keep your readers on your site longer and some get you “Liked” on Facebook.

All in One SEO Pack
If you don’t have this plugin installed you should download it today.  It is the most downloaded plugin for WordPress blogs.  This plugin is used to assist in the search engine optimization of your WordPress blog.  Installation only takes a moment and set-up is fairly simple.  Find more information here on how to use it once you have the plugin installed.

Akismet
This plugin prevents spam from being posted to the comments section of your post.  The plugin checks your comments against the Akismet server to see if they look like spam.  The “Comments”" admin screen lets you review spam comments before they display below your post.

Contact Form 7
Those looking for a way to gather customer information need to look no further.  The plugin Contact Form 7 uses CAPTCHA in order to prevent non-humans from submitting a form.  This plugin even uses Akismet to filter out any spam.  It can help you manage multiple contact forms and is customizable for those with a little more experience with code.

Contextual Related Posts
Keep your readers around longer with a plugin that displays related stories.  This plugin will display a list of related post at the end of the post the reader is viewing.  The plugin looks at the tags or the current article to match it with similar post the reader might like.  Therefore keeping them around longer on your site instead of reading one article and moving on.

fbLikeButton
Let your readers “Recommend” or “Like” your blog post and share them with one-click to their Facebook friends.  The plugin is customizable in look and feel depending on your blogs theme.  The button can be displayed before or after your post.  This is a great way to draw traffic to your blog from Facebook.

Google Analytics for WordPress
This plugin bills itself as the most complete Google Analytics plugin for WordPress.  Track where your readers are coming from, how long they are staying around on your blog and more.  The newest version promises to be faster when loading the tracking code.

Newsletter
Keep your readers coming back to your blog with a newsletter you compose.  It can be sent out on whatever frequency you like.  Your readers can opt-in to your newsletter with just a name and email address.  This is a very powerful plugin and you can read more information here.

WP-DB-Backup
Must have plugin to give you piece of mind that your hard work is protected.  This plugin is able to backup your core WordPress database on a schedule or when ever you need.  You can save it to the server, your PC or have it sent via email to protect your blog post.  It also allows you to backup other tables that are related to your WordPress blog.

WP Google-buzz
Facebook and Twitter still reign when it comes to social media sites.  Google might be the powerful search giant but its entry into social media with Google Buzz kind of fizzled.  However there is rumor that Google has something new coming down the pipeline.

WPtouch iPhone Theme
Give your blog that iPhone look and feel for your readers on the go.  WPtouch gives your WordPress blog an iPod/iPhone app look.  The admin controls for the plug-in give you lots of customization.  Viewer can toggle to the normal view for your blog with a flip of a switch.

More information…

More Resources:

WordPress Plugin Directory

Affordable WordPress Hosting from IgniteHost – Starting at less than $5 a month!

Original article posted on Dennis J. Smith – Social Media Author

Promote your Business or Cause using Social Media is my first book and has just been published.  The book is self-published using Amazon.com’s company CreateSpace and is available on both CreateSpace and Amazon.com for purchase.

The book is a guide for beginner’s who are interested in learning about the different types of social media.  It covers blogging, Blog Talk Radio, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook Fan Pages and FBML.  It also covers the difference between individual profiles, groups and pages.  If you are a business you should only use a Fan Page to promote your business and not an individual profile page or a group page.

Facebook Fan Pages allow someone to follow you without waiting for your approval.  You can also use the many apps available on Facebook like RSS Graffiti, Static FBML, Payvment E-Commerce Storefront and more.  Plus there’s many more options to stay in touch with your fans.  Payvment is covered and talks about adding  e-commerce to your fan page for free.  You just need a PayPal account which is free to establish.

There’s a Fan Page on Facebook for those wanting to learn more about how to promote their business or cause using social media.  It’s free and new information is added weekly.  You will need to have a Facebook account before you can join the fan page.  If you want to read the book there’s a free section available in eBook format or you can purchase your own copy below.

Promote your Business or Cause using Social Media – Facebook Fan Page

Purchase on Amazon.com

Purchase on CreateSpace.com

Ignite your creative passion online with one of our easy to create web hosting plans.  Ignite Web Host will have you online in no time at all expressing yourself or showcasing your small-business to the world.  We offer all the features needed to launch your blog, personal web space, political campaign, small business website and more.
Get ignited and get online today!

Working Writer Happy Writer: How to Build a Thriving Writing Business from NOTHING (Paperback) – Sue LaPointe

Due to the economy and the desire to break free from corporate America I’ve been reading a lot of business related books.  Anything from Twitter Revolution to the Bestseller Rich Dad Poor Dad have been thumbed through lately.  I’ve been on my personal quest to find something that can set me free and allow me to control my own destiny.  I recently had lunch with a friend who was a former co-worker.  Because of some health issues and the need to be a stay at home mom she had started to freelance.  She told me how much she was making and about a woman she had met over the internet named Sue LaPointe.  We talked about the book she had read that was written by Sue and how it was inspiring.  I was interested in knowing more so I went home and did some research right after our yummy Thai food lunch.

Just Do It

I put off buying the book for several weeks because the bills to keep the power and heat on come first.  But I did some searching and found some great freelance websites.  Just recently I finally ordered the book and just finished reading it earlier this week.  I’ve always said you have to spend a little money if you want to make money.

Freelance Freedom

It’s no wonder why Sue is at the top of her game and one of the top writers on Guru.com.  She writes in a style that keeps you turning the pages and with a sense of humor tossed in.  I now feel like I have the basic knowledge need to start my own freelance writing business or even web design.  The book doesn’t go into depth but gives you enough information on how to get started.  Readers are given a list of freelance websites to check out from Sue’s favorite Guru.com to Rent-a-Coder, the popular E-Lance and more.

It’s all about getting the Gig

Sue talks about getting your first gig (freelance job), finding local clients, building and updating your portfolio, setting your rates and more.  I enjoyed reading about the 8 projects she recommends such as starting a blog.  I already can check that one off my list because you’re reading this on my blog.  Keeping your portfolio up-to-date and building on your work.  Her recommendation is to keep your work in PDF format instead of its native format (i.e. Word format).  It looks better and most everyone has the ability to view a file in PDF format.  The most current version of Office will even convert from Word to PDF on the fly.  Recommendation number 5 is advice to visit forums on a regular frequency.  Warrior Forum is one that I’m a member of but need to visit and utilize more often.  The forum not mentioned that I found a few months ago can be found on Freelance Folder.  You’ll usually find me posting under DJInBoise on both the forums.  I’ll leave the other recommendations for you to discover when you read the book.

Smart Goals

The last thing I want to mention is goal setting because it’s SMART (Goals should be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely).  I always try to set small realistic goals so I can attain them.  Reading Working Writer Happy Writer was one of my short term goals.  Never having to work for a corporation again in my lifetime is my long term goal.  What’s your short term goal?  What are your long term goals?  This book gives you lots of information and ideas to make your own goals.  It’s up to you to seize the moment and decide your future in freelancing.

DJ

Order the book on Amazon today and start your own journey!
Read more…

Tweet! Tweet! Tweet!

If you haven’t discovered the latest trend on the Internet you’re missing all the fun. Twitter is the latest phenomenon to sweep the Internet. It’s growing at an even faster pace than Facebook at an astounding 1,382 percent from February 2008 to February 2009¹.

Imagine if your business grew at that rate? Twitter works like a mini-blog in which users known as Tweeters post messages that are 140 characters or less. Tweeters can post short messages (a.k.a Tweets) on how they are feeling, what they are doing or repost and suggest another article for others to view.

It is easy to get started by going to www.twitter.com and setting up an account and profile. You can find me at http://www.twitter.com/DJInBoise and click on "Follow". Now you can start following others from your friends, celebrities, politicians and even your mom. In turn others will start following you so you can broadcast yourself or a business to the world! Many companies are using Twitter as a way to market their products and services. Why wouldn’t you when you have 7 million² potential customers and growing?

Social Media websites are changing the face of the internet. Twitter, Facebook and MySpace are changing how we communicate and educate. Chances are that your friends and family members are already doing it or soon will be. Take the time today to get on board before you get behind.

Happy Tweeting!

Works Cited

¹ Crum, C. (2009, March 19). Twitter is the Fastest Growing Community. Retrieved March 19, 2009, from http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2009/03/19/twitter-is-the-fastest-growing-community

² McGiboney, M. (2009, March 18). Twitter’s Tweet Smell Of Success. Retrieved March 19, 2009, from http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/twitters-tweet-smell-of-success/

This is a follow up to the article I wrote on Making Sense of AdSense, Content and SEO. I recently received my first AdSense check from Google a few months ago for $100. That took me nearly 2 years to get to the $100 for payout. Now just 2 months after that payout I’m only $20 shy of getting my 2nd $100 payment from Google.

The Stats

Why the change you ask? SEO and good content on my website has drawn new traffic to my site and kept visitors there longer resulting in more clicks on the ads. I recently reviewed the website statistics provided by my hosting company 1and1.com. The trend was that visits to the site had increased each year and then took off this spring. I used the website tool Google Analytic installed on my site and checked the period of 6/01/2008-9/20/2008 vs. the same period last year for my sites statistics and showed 1660 vs. 651 visits for an increase of 154.99 percent. Page visits for the same period grew from 997 to 3739 for an increase of 275 percent. My studies of Search Engine Optimization started earlier this year by reading the book Search Engine Optimization – An Hour a Day by Jennifer Grappone and Gradiva Couzin.

Organic Search Results

There are 2 types of results when doing a search on sites like Google, Yahoo, Live and other search engines. PPC or Pay per Click allows you to bid on keywords and have more control where your site ranks. When someone clicks on your sponsored ad you pay depending on the value of the keyword that produced your search results. Depending on the amount of clicks this can be quite costly for those with a limited budget. That’s why I’ve taken the time to learn about SEO because there’s no expense involved in landing on the top of an organic search result. By reading the book I mentioned above and researching online I can now see the benefits.

Research

Do some footwork and check out what your competitors are doing online. Do a search using keywords related to your product or service to see who ranks near the top. I took the keywords “Volunteer Software” and searched Google and found out my site ranks 19th out of 411,000 results. Not bad considering that you want to land on page 3 or less on a search engine search result. Most lookers aren’t going to go much further than that when looking for a product or service online. When searching for “Volunteer Management Software” the results are even better and the site lands on page one and ranks 4th out of 332,000 results. Not bad when you consider that I didn’t have to pay anyone to get my website ranked high. There are several places to check your keywords for popularity.

Wordtracker

Wordtracker Free Keyword Tool

Google Keyword Tool

https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

Try. Try. Try and Try again

With your research behind you try and apply what you’ve learned to your website. Keep in mind that changes in ranking don’t happen overnight and can sometimes take months. But it’s your job to consistently be refining your site until you get the right results. It’s a good idea to review your site daily even after you start ranking higher because a good ranking is never guaranteed.

I would suggest that besides your home page that you try creating a few landing pages with different keywords. Then monitor your visitor trends using something like Google Analytic to see which page draws the most visits to your site. Keep in mind that you want to use powerful keywords and repeat them on your page in a logical pattern. I have used the keywords “Volunteer Management Software” in several different areas of the home page of my site. Make sure you don’t overdo it otherwise you might risk getting penalized by the search engines.

Final Thoughts

SEO doesn’t mean your site will move to the first page of a search results overnight but eventually you might be there. I suggest check a local community college for possible classes in Internet Marketing and SEO. I’ve always learned web development by reading books, studying online and reading forms on the subject. Please feel free to comment if you have any thoughts or would like to contribute what has worked best for you.

Best wishes,
Dennis J. Smith

The ASP Connection

The next time you create a website think about how you want to get information to others. Is it information that is going to change or stay the same? If it’s going to stay the same then you create your html document and you’re done with it. However, if you want to change that information at a later date you have to update the document each time you have new information to add. Depending on how often you update this task can become a time consuming choir. There’s a better way out there to serve up fresh web pages daily or even by the minute. We are going to explore the benefits of ASP (Active Server Page) technology and how to use it to connect to a database via your web page.

Getting Your ASP On

Example of an ASP tag
<% Response. Write "I'm an ASP Tag!" %>

ASP or Active Server Pages is a technology created by Microsoft back in the mid 90′s. In non-technical terms it allows the web page to talk to the database and return results back to the web page via the server. ASP effectively allows you to create dynamic web pages rather than boring static pages.

The first thing you need to do is create an Access or SQL database to hold your information. I typically use Access first to design my tables that store the data. It’s wise to map out your database design before you start storing data in it. That way it’s not difficult to make changes to the structure of your database at a later time. In this example we’ll create a very simple database that will secure your information by asking users to login in for access and create a table that will store and display links to favorite websites.

Setting Up Your Database Using Microsoft Access

You need to have Microsoft Access to create a table needed store login access information. Open Access, select new blank database, save your new database to your PC and then click on the icon to create a new table with the columns needed to store your login data. I would suggest columns named “username”, “password”, “FirstName”, “LastName” and information you would like to gather at login. I usually add information that will carry from one page to the next to customize form features. Now when “Joe Smith” logs in the information is sent to the server to match against the database. If it is incorrect then a message is displayed letting the user know they need to re-enter the information into the form. If correct then they are sent to the next page on the site where you might fill out a form or other information might be displayed. The information that you store in the login table can determine how information is displayed to the user. An example would be that “Joe Smith” is from Idaho; stored with his information is a column called “State” with “ID” stored as the state he resides in. When Joe logs into your website you can create a session which stays with him while logged into your site. This allows you to create smart forms that can be customized depending on your needs. Now you can have the form display information such as the cities for Idaho because you know this person is located in that state. You could also do this such as displaying the page in a larger font by creating a table of user preferences.

Information on how to create tables using Microsoft Access can be found on the Microsoft website:
Click Here

Next time I’ll talk about hosting your database and explain how to make the connection between your database and your pages.