Allan at MindVisionMedia.net interviewed on BlogTalkRadio

Ken Blake from ThinkBigRadio.com interviews Allan on BlogTalkRadio about web design, WordPress and how he got started teaching. Check out the interview below or on BlogTalkRadio.

Check Out Business Podcasts at Blog Talk Radio with thinkBIGradio on BlogTalkRadio

Embedded Video Best Practice | Video Volume

Greetings from Allan at MindVisionMedia.net, I hope this post finds you well. With embedded media, specifically video and advertising being used frequently on websites, it is important to understand some simple rules of courtesy that will make your user’s experience pleasant and enjoyable. 

How many times this past year have you visited a site or clicked on a video link only to arrive at the page or video that begins playing at live concert sound levels? Or how many advertising videos have you encountered that don’t have controls at all and have volume levels that your neighbors down the street can hear?

I don’t know about you but I have been shocked out of my chair several times by some of these videos and advertisements that start playing at maximum sound volume. It is very annoying and in my opinion, disrespectful. 

If you have other people in your home or office, this can be quite intrusive and distracting. It happens quite frequently on big sites like Yahoo, YouTube and other sites including news sites too when you click on a news story, article or video. When did the web become so inconsiderate? I’m not sure but I don’t recall it being that extreme prior to the last year or two.

I remember not too long ago there was a campaign to stop TV and Cable stations from blasting loud commercials that were 2-3 times the volume level of the program you were watching but the concept or rather consideration hasn’t been upheld and doesn’t include the web. It is so inconvenient to keep adjusting your speaker volume on every web page you visit or to have an advertisement start playing out of nowhere while you are reading an article, then to have to scroll down the page to find where the embedded video or ad is located which often doesn’t even have any volume or player controls at all.

What is up with that I have to ask? Trickery is not a best practice in web design nor is placing media on your page that the user can’t control or opt-out of listening to. Even with your computer volume set to a low-level, some of these sites, especially the big guys with all of their advertising just explode with loud intrusive volume levels that are mind-boggling and you are forced to listen to or watch before you can see, read or watch what you came there for in the first place.

As a designer who has to build, upload and test a lot, I frequently do a lot of work during off-peak hours while many are sleep and bandwidth is plentiful. There’s nothing like doing  research or visiting a website at 2 in the morning and the website you visit has video or advertising at volume level 1000 that scares everybody including your neighbors out of a deep sleep.

To me it is just common sense, common courtesy to adjust volume at a respectful level or to leave the option to the user to turn volume on or skip your ad altogether. But advertisers especially want you to hear their commercial even if you are down the street from your house at the gas station or walking your dog around the corner, unbelievable!

So this post is to remind designers to be respectful, be considerate and always embed your media with low or no volume. Or at least give your users the option to play the media or not with clear direction. Never, never, never put a video at the bottom of your page that starts automatically with high volume and your visitors must scroll down or look for the source of annoying noise or check other open browser tabs and windows to see where the sound is coming from, that is just plain rude and projects a sneaky methodology and purpose.

I know with YouTube video embeds, you have limited control over the volume as it relates to the end-user but there are options in the YouTube Video API section using JavaScript to control the volume but you must adhere to the API parameters and restrictions for use. It gets a little technical and complicated for some but below is a link to that information.

To be safe in general, I recommend just having the video set to not autoplay and allow your visitors to select the media to play it at their convenience.
YouTube Embedded Player Parameters and API

If you’re tired of advertising and video from websites, especially the big boys and News sites blasting uncontrollable advertising videos with inconsiderate volume levels and no player controls to opt-out, help spread the word on social media, write a post about it and start the conversation in your circles. Maybe the FCC and these sites will get wind of the issue and start to pay attention, thanks!

By
Allan Whitney
Owner/Administrator
MindVisionMedia.net

MVM WordPress Web Design

MindVisionMedia.net offers professional responsive WordPress web design services for personal or small business. 

We are capable of incorporating all aspects of the design process including installation of the latest WordPress CMS version, front and back-end configuration, server-side configuration, theme and plugin installation and configuration, child theme creation, custom graphics, banners and logos using Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, custom CSS modifications if required, e-commerce setup, email capture list setup, search engine optimization and social media integration.

Free website consultations. Submit a request now!

MVM WordPress Installation

Sometimes installing WordPress can be a little tricky, especially if you are a beginner. MindVisionMedia.net can handle all of your WordPress free and paid theme or plugin installations and configuration for you. Let MVM do the dirty work so you can concentrate on other things. 

We’ll configure your server, install the latest version of WordPress, setup the dashboard settings and install common plugins and create a child theme so all you have to do is create. Don’t let the techy stuff hold you up, Get started now!

Balanced WordPress Web Design

Greetings from Allan at MindVisionMedia.net, I hope this post finds you all well. I get a lot of questions about why a particular business website isn’t doing well so I thought I would write this quick post to explain some basics that I feel are very important.

Todays business website needs a combination of design principles incorporated to be effective and compete with the 644,000,000 active websites on the Internet right now.
 
Three very important aspects you’ll want to utilize besides clear, concise content and effective navigation are, social media marketing, search engine optimization and imagery or visual stimulation.

WordPress is the choice for business websites with over 40% of businesses choosing WP for their content management system and combining these principles will help make you competitive and get you the attention you seek.

Social Media Marketing:

Compared to the cost of advertising for a brick and mortar business, a website offers almost unlimited advertising in a variety of ways that are extremely cost-effective if not free all together. Of course you can still apply some of the same print marketing techniques for your site as you do with a regular business, but social media marketing is a powerful and effective approach that doesn’t cost anything except some of your time. 

Connecting your website to various social media channels and publishing detailed content about your goods and services will generate as much traffic or more than regular advertising. It helps to spread the word about your business and attracts followers and word-of-mouth interest.

Search Engine Optimization:

Search engine optimization is becoming more understandable and accessible to the average site owner thanks to a variety of popular SEO plugins. This allows you to not only automate but also optimize your site for most search engines primarily Google. A knowledge of Google Analytics and Web Master Tools helps to fine tune your site even more for specific target markets and demographics.

Visual Stimulation:

In today’s visually inspired society, visual content is expected by end users. Whether it involves images of your products, graphics that help explain your services, video commercials, training or presentations, the average end-user will be more engaged if your site has visual appeal. Statistics show that our society reads less and gets most of their cues and information from visual aids. 

The old saying that a picture speaks a thousand words is more true now than in the past with the high use of digital mediums in everyday life. Sites that don’t have a visual advantage are often left out because the information requires more time to analyze and decipher. Using a combination of text and visual stimuli helps the modern brain to process and determine the message quicker. It also helps the user to navigate quickly to information that relates to what they seek.

Effectively combining these elements in a balanced fashion into your site and message will help you drive more traffic and clients to your business. Balance is the key, the right mix of text, imagery, marketing and optimization makes for a good site that is well equipped to compete in today’s high-tech world. If you are not managing or designing your own business site, be sure your designer or webmaster is effective in implementing all of the above aspects into your design process.

By
Allan Whitney Owner/Administrator MindVisionMedia.net

MVM Custom WP Theme Modification

You found a good WP theme for your site but something just isn’t right. You need colors changed, extra white space removed, the font needs to be bigger, that bar at the bottom needs to be a different color. Well, MindVisionMedia.net can do that for you. 

We’ll modify your theme so it looks the way you want it to using custom CSS. We’ll even create a child theme for you so you don’t have to worry about a theme update erasing all of your modifications. It’s those little adjustments and details that make the difference on your site, send your request now!

MVM Website Editing

Building a website is one thing, maintaining it is quite another. Is your website stale, does it need fresh content, revisions or changes? 

MindVisionMedia.net can create content, edit existing content, edit the layout or change the theme to give your site a fresh start. Maybe you need monthly or periodic site maintenance, we can help with an option and a price that’s right. Click here for a quote!

MVM SEO & SMM

Is your website connected to all of your social media channels? Maximize your outreach and visibility with basic SEO and SMM services from MindVisionMedia.net. 

Need help setting up social media for your site, no problem. Whether you have YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Google +, Blogger, Tumblr or other social media channels, get them connected to your site so all you have to do is Post once to all your channels at the same time with our help. 

Improve search ranking and reach your target market better, apply affiliate marketing strategies and get your site monetized  by clicking here to contact MVM now!

Responsive Theme Free Time Saving Tips

Hello from Allan at MindVisionMedia.net and I hope this post finds you all well.

If you are using the CyberChimps Responsive Theme free version, there are a few things you need to know that will save you a lot of headache. 

I get so many users rejected from the forums asking for really simple instruction on where to locate files and perform simple tasks such as changing a font or title size and many other changes that I thought I would write this quickly to help clear up some of the confusion and clarify a few things.

Many around the world are using earlier versions of this great theme and are not familiar with many of the changes that have taken place just in the last few weeks and months. This short post includes Responsive Theme Free Time Saving Tips for old and new versions.

FILES:
The 2 major changes that will affect users of older versions who update are,

1. The old home.php file is now called the front-page.php file
2. The style.css file is no longer visible in the dashboard under theme editor, it is now located and accessible on your server at the following path: wp-content>themes>responsive>core>css>style.css.

MODIFICATIONS:

When it comes to modifying the theme there is more than one method and or option available to you as follows,

1. You can use the built-in custom css panel under Theme Options>CSS Styles to add css code snippets that will over-ride the themes parent style
2. You can set up a child theme and add those modified css codes to the child theme which will over-ride the parent css style
3. Or you can activate Jetpack in your WordPress dashboard and use the Custom CSS feature (can be used for any WordPress Theme modifications, not just the Responsive Theme)

As more Responsive Free users seek help, these simple tips will help make your Responsive Theme journey a little less cumbersome. To know more about how to identify and find the css code snippets you will need to make these style modifications you can watch my video tutorials on How to Edit WordPress with Firefox part #1 and #2, these WordPress video tutorials will give you the power and confidence to make changes without the wasted time and rejection found in the free forums.

As always, use a child theme (watch my video tutorial on Child Themes Update for 2014 on YouTube) or at the very least, make a copy of the files you plan to edit using a text editor such as Notepad or Notepad ++ (not Microsoft Word) so you can always fall back if you break the code or experience a problem.

By
Allan Whitney
Owner/Administrator
MindVisionMedia.net

Best Stock Photo Solution for 2014

Hello from Allan at MindVisionmedia.net and I hope this quick post finds you all well.

Building a Dynamic WordPress or a Static HTML website is a visual venture that requires images one way or another, especially if you are producing content , ads, etc. In this post I will reveal The Best Stock Photo Solution for 2014. 

As you probably have already found out, the price of stock photos to use on your website can sometimes cost just as much or more than your site cost to set up which is a deterrent as well as a mystery for many. Well do I have a solution for you that will not only blow the high-end competition completely out of the water but save you BIG bucks in the process while offering you the same quality of images you would expect from the big expensive guys who change and arm, two legs and a spleen to purchase as few as 2 images.

Its called the Dollar Photo Club and they are revolutionizing the Stock Image industry with an emphasis on making these images available to users at a tremendous savings while still offering the quality we all want.

The big boy's as mentioned, can charge as much as $50-$100 dollars for a single image and that can add up when you have a site that needs more than a few images to convey your message, create banners and ad's etc. 

This photo resource site has become my favorite and I will never, and I repeat never go back to the big guys like iStock Photo, ShutterStock or Getty Images. When I think of the money my clients and I have spent using these services over the years, it makes me kinda sad, that money could have been used for other aspects of the design process, marketing campaigns or many other options and add-ons involved in the site implementation process.

Now, I get nothing but praise from the Internet community I expose this information to, they are elated to save big money and still get the images they want for their project without committing to lengthy terms, memberships and high over-priced images.

And no, I am not getting paid by Dollar Photo Club, I just love their approach and want to help rid the Internet of over-priced stock images all together. Do yourself a favor and go on over to Dollar Photo Club at http://www.dollarphotoclub.com/ and see for yourself, and do tell a friend, you'll be a hero in your own circles, I guarantee it! 

Enjoy

by
Allan Whitney
Owner/Administrator
MindVisionMedia.net

Four Good WordPress E-Commerce Plugins

Hello from Allan at MindVisionMedia.net again, I hope this post finds you all well.

I get a lot of inquiries about which plugin or program to use for WP e-commerce. 
I have used several myself and installed and set up several for clients as well and there are 4 that really stick out for user friendliness and cost to get started. 

I would consider all of these to range from simple to moderate in technical detail and ability. Almost anybody can set one of these up in no time depending on how many products you have and the specifics you need for each.

Be sure to check with your hosting company to make sure they have enough WP support to run your e-commerce option. These are all free and offer other features, options and add-ons that you can purchase to enhance your online store and the control features you have.

The first is Ecwid, this free plugin offers a handy e-commerce widget that is easy to implement on any page or post through the use of a shortcode. 

The set up at Ecwid.com is friendly and easy as well providing more options than one would expect from a free service. Once you have your products created and all of the settings configured, it is just a matter of dragging the Ecwid e-commerce Plugin widget into the sidebar of your choice or add the store to a page of your choice using the provided "shortcodes".

The free plan includes all standard e-commerce features, and paid plans start at $15 per month and grant you more advanced features such as discount settings and inventory control. Check it out and see if it's the right e-commerce solution for your WordPress site or Blog.

---

Next we have Shopify, get your online retail plan going with this stylish and versatile e-commerce solution. What I like about this one is the ability to customize the look and feel pretty much however you want. 

I have worked on and seen some pretty nice "looking" online stores using this one.

They offer over 100 templates and even have an iPad Point-of-Sale feature that syncs all of your online and brick and mortar products, inventory, orders etc making it easier for business owners to manage their business.

---

Probably one of the most known free e-commerce plugins for WordPress  is WooCommerce. This is another option for your online store that offers great themes ($) to help you customize the look and feel of your business.
You get all the basic features including order management, shipping and tax adjustments, customer account area, sales reports, inventory management options, coupon options and a whole lot more. If you are looking for a plugin that is popular, this is it. 

A quick note to consider though is that not all hosting companies offer full WordPress support which can impact whether or not you can run WooCommerce on your server. Check with your hosting company to see if they support WooCommerce before you get all exited, I have had personal experience getting one all setup and the hosting company couldn't run it properly.

---

The last one is WP e-Commerce. A bit of a trend setter, this e-commerce option was one of the few solutions for WordPress years ago before a lot of the others were developed. 

Of course this one has everything you need as do most, control over inventory, shipping, discounts, orders, multiple language and currency options, Google Checkout and a lot more, free.

You can buy other features and add-ons to enhance the product but you can definitely get started and go a long way with the free version. These guys were around before all of the options available today so they have had the advantage of finding out what works and what features to provide for those who choose to use this e-commerce option, tried and tested.

So if you are trying to configure an online store or shopping cart, set up an e-commerce site, sell stuff on your blog etc, these 4 WordPress e-commerce options provide enough versatility and comparison to help you make a good decision for your needs. Again just a reminder to check with your hosting company to make sure your choice will work on your current server configuration. Enjoy and happy selling!


by
Allan Whitney
Owner/Administrator
MindVisionMedia.net

WordPress Responsive Theme - Where's the CSS File?

Responsive Theme updates impact thousands of users, cause broken themes and child themes as core files are changed and hidden form access.

Hi folks, @allanmvm here to discuss the recent updates to the Responsive Theme and the many inquiries I am receiving from frustrated and confused users.

As most of us know, using a child theme is supposed to be a good thing, right? Some would argue but the concept makes sense, work on a copy instead of ruining the original,a common sense approach most can digest. 

Typically theme developers make updates to their themes to rectify security vulnerabilities and bug fixes that are needed to enhance or protect users f the theme. CyberChimps however is making changes that are impacting users in a negative way of late. In the last 6 months alone, the Responsive Theme has gone through major changes to core files and recently the main style css file was hidden from access in the themes dashboard theme editor.

Even with a child theme, many discovered a broken site or blog after updating the parent theme. and new users are lost when trying to create a child theme with the latest versions.

In another attempt to assist the many users contacting me about this issue, I have created a short but clear video that sheds some light on the matter. I show where the style css file has been moved to in the latest version, and I also show 2 additional methods of modifying the theme without even creating a child theme at all.

My video tutorials on child themes for the earlier versions still apply if you are using older version 1.9.3 or earlier of which a lot of people are still using believe it or not, especially in other countries.

Check out the short video here:

I hope this short tutorial helps diminish the headaches being felt by many users especially our Newbies (hang in there Newbie, help is on the way)

Visit MindVisionMedia.net to find out more and get help with other issues regarding WordPress Responsive Themes.

Join to get access to FREE downloads and more!

Get your FREE copy of my "Responsive Theme Area Zone Map Guidebook". It shows where everything is in the theme, download it here:
Responsive Theme Area Zone Map Guidebook

By
Allan Whitney
Owner/Administrator
MindVisionMedia.net

Best WordPress Plugin for Revision Removal

WordPress | Optimize Database after Deleting Revisions Plugin

Do you have a ton of revisions but don't know what to do?

Not often do I write a review but this caught my eye. You might recall that I briefly mentioned a couple of plugins in a recent post about WordPress Revisions eating up resources in your database.

Obviously, the revisions feature is a necessity in a CMS like WordPress or any other. I love the feature and have had to use it on more than one occasion.

There are sites that use it quite frequently and deliberately. But having a setting that allows you to decide for yourself, based on your individual needs, i.e. you are a writer or run an article site or magazine site, etc, or you rarely write anything, would be a great addition the arsenal of WP.

Having used several database management plugins, I have discovered my favorite and just have to let people know more about it. Once you set this thing up, one click gets rid of all the extra revisions that fall outside your parameters in an instant. It even gets rid of transients, spammed items and unused tags as well as keeping a log file.

For example, I had over 115 revisions on just one page in my site because I was testing out some new plugins and layouts, ah, thats kinda overkill on the revisions I think guys. 

Anyway, I digress, Back to the story, somewhere in a town in the Netherlands lives and works a man, a web developer, artist and partner in a web development company in Eindhoven called CAGE Web Design, Rolf van Gelder is his name. 

Rolf created a plugin called "Optimize Database after Deleting Revisions" (current version 2.7.7).

I mean the name of this plugin just screams simplicity and it actually does what it says which deserves credit these days. The setup and settings are easy and give you good refinement on what you want to keep in terms of revisions. I only keep (2) revisions no matter what I am editing!

It keeps the clutter down and a load off my database which is always good with a large site like mine. And as you will see below, it saved a ton of space in my database for MVM. Rolf thought of everything, it even lets you choose the tables and rows in the database you want to exclude or include, he did a really good job, KUDOS Rolf from the States!

You saved me a ton of resources on my overloaded database and increased my caching and load time, both front and back while editing. If you haven't heard of this one, you might want to check it out. Its available through your WordPress Plugin Dashboard,  just search for the name.

The "total savings since first run" in the picture below indicates how much total space this plugin saved out of my database allocated to "revisions"! Twelve and a half MB is a lot for a database so just consider how many revisions you have since you upgraded WordPress, it could be as much as me or even more!

Here is a link to the developers site, Optimize Database after Deleting Revisions










By  
Allan Whitney
Owner/Administrator  
MindVisionMedia.net

WordPress – Still Getting Comments – Here’s Why!

WordPress has established itself as the most popular CMS available today! Used by fortune 500 companies, celebrities, municipalities, major news organizations and the little guy or gal, it offers robust features, versatility and social media integration. But it has it's vulnerabilities also and one must be diligent to prevent WordPress from becoming a hackers dream.

When it comes to comments, unless you are running a Blog and are willing to moderate and manage the numerous comments and maintain a good level of security against comment spam, you'll want to disable comments on your pages and posts. This is accomplished easily by going to the Discussion settings  under the Dashboard label of Settings, and de-selecting the first 3 check boxes. Typically this works pretty good, but you may not be done!
If you do this after the fact, there could be pages and posts in your site or Blog that may have already been created that have comments enabled. This setting located in each individual page or post as you create it, overrides the settings under the Discussion menu.  To see this option as create a new page pr post, click on the screen options tab at the top of the page or post editor and check the box for "Discussion". This will show options at the bottom of your posts to either allow Comments or not. You can now make sure that comments are turned off for that particular post.
There is a quick way to do this, especially if you have a lot of pages. Click on "Pages" in your Dashboard, this will bring up a list of all of your pages (the same applies to posts), click the top check box above the list next to the word Title to select all, click the bulk actions box and choose Edit from the drop down, then click apply. 

A new window will open allowing you to select options for the entire page list you selected at once. Disable comment, and Trackbacks and Pingbacks if desired and save your settings. you just disabled comments on all pages you selected with one click.

Go to the next page, select all again and do the same thing until you have disabled all comments on all pages and posts in your list. Now you have absolutely turned off comments and no individual page will override the main settings. 

Looking good so far, but wait there's more! Few people know or notice, that WordPress, by default enables comments on all of your Media files you upload to WordPress. Thats right, after all we've done so far to disable them, there is still a "Back Door" vulnerability in WordPress to receive comments.

Unfortunately, there is no bulk actions option when dealing with media files. Why they didn't put this ability or option in the newest version I'll never know. But you will have to manually edit each media file to turn off comments. A tedious task if you have a lot of images. I recently discovered this back door vulnerability and experienced some comment spam on my site. 

Now I have truly disabled ALL comments on my site for pages, posts and media files and the comments have finally stopped. Of course there are some plugins out there to help but I wanted to make sure they were all turned off myself.

Be aware that when you create a new page (or post) or add new media files, you'll have to double check to make sure there are no options set to allow comments. There are ways to edit the core files and turn them off from the core, but that is an extreme measure if you are not sure you won't want comments at a future date. I didn't have to go that route and I am happy with the results from doing it the way I described above.

WordPress will never be free of hackers, spammers and the like, so again, if you don't want to deal with comments because you are just too busy (like me) or you are not running a blog or discussion site, use the methods described to put a stop to it, once and for all, but with the option of turning them back on if you desire later on.


By
Allan Whitney
Owner/Administrator
MindVisionMedia.net

Is Your Website Dead or Dormant?

Hello, I hope this post finds you well.  

Have you started a website project only to loose interest or give up and let it go? These days, many jump on the website bandwagon and eventually drop off. The reasons are many, but frustration ranks among the top. It all looks so simple on the commercial, just sign up and click a button and you have an instant website, right, wrong! 

A website, even with all of the simple features included in most if not all web builder programs, is still a lot of work. There are so many things to be concerned with and you must have a varied skill-set which includes web design, writing and editing, photoshop and graphics, HTML, CSS among others in order to construct a truly professional site.

On the other hand, it can cost up to $2500 to have a professional website built for your business or small venture and many don't have that in their budget, especially these days. The average cost of a website professionally done, ranges from about $1,500 to $1,8000. These prices are steep and keep a lot of folks from even investigating having a web presence. Also, the time involved in learning all the stuff yourself can be just as dawnting as the prices out there sometimes. Who has the time to maticulously build each aspect of a website and connect it all together so everything works. Functionality and navigation are very important to the process

If you are talking about a simple, 2-3 page personal vacation site with just some images of your trip, thats one thing, but if yoou are trying to build a professional, business website that is functional and professional, then you must have the skills mentioned above or you'll have to outsource the job to someone who knows what they are doing and that can get expensive!

Thats where I come in, Allan at MindVisionMedia.net, I offer website solutions to fit almost every budget. I specialize in Dynamic WordPress websites but can also build static Dreamweaver sites from scratch as well. My 10+ years of experience in all aspects of web design, give me the ability to streamline the process, making it simple and easy on the wallet for many who aspire to have a website. Whether you have a small business or want a personal site, I have solutions for you to consider. 

Don't let high prices keep you from establishing your spot on the web, let me see if I have a solution for your budget that will make it happen for you. 70% of my website clients spend under $1000 for a professional, functional website for their business. I have many solutions in the $500 range also that fit a lot of budgets these days. You get the same professional services offered by the high-price guys, for less! So what are you waiting for, lets do this!

Stop hassling with trying to do it yourself, let me do the work and get you on your way to driving traffic to your site instead of banging your head on the desk for weeks. Contact me via my site at MindVisionMedia.net to discuss your project, let me know your budget and I'll do my best to work with you, thats my promise! Contact me here! 

Web Services Offered:
WordPress Websites
Static Sites
Website Updates or Editing
Banner Design
Ad Design
WordPress Installations
Plugin Installations
Theme Customization
Social Media Integration
Basic SEO Implementation
Custom Flash MP3 Players
Graphics and Logos
Flash Animations
Animated GIF's

Skills:
Web Design
WordPress Web Design
HTML
CSS
Photoshop
Flash Animation
Graphics - Banners - Logos
Video (Shooting and Editing)
Photography (Shooting and Editing)
Social Media Integration
Basic SEO Implementation
Google Adsense and Analytics
Writing


By
Allan Whitney
Owner/Administrator
MindVisionMedia.net

WordPress 3.8.1 Revisions feature causes Database issues!

WordPress 3.8.1 Revisions feature causes Database issues!

Hello from Allan at MindVisionMedia.net, I hope this post finds you well.

I love the new WordPress versions, they are full of nice changes and features but I recently started having serious issues with my WordPress website. Load time for everything was beyond forever and most of the time whatever I was trying to accomplish timed out. Logging in was a nightmare, trying to edit a page or post was a nightmare, and dealing with my hosting company over the issues was a nightmare.

In the end here's what I learned:
The new versions (3.8.1) of WordPress have built-in a revisions feature that is great in theory, but in reality, we don't need a copy being saved every minute and we definitely don't need our hosting company trying to charge us for more database space because we have reached our quota which is what I had to deal with in my case. I was exceeding my database quota several times a day and as a result, I could not log in or get any work done, extremely frustrating to say the least.

After going around and around with my hosting company who apparently didn't have a clue when it came to my database, I started doing my own research and discovered that the "revisions" feature is causing problems everywhere. Especially for larger sites or sites with lots of posts or pages such as mine. I then researched some database plugins and settled on 2, "Optimize Database after Deleting Revisions" and also "Revision Removal", both plugins helped me accomplish my goal of deleting all revisions, setting the max revisions to (2) and optimizing the database after reducing its size to less than half its previous size! If you use WordPress, then you are familiar with these words: "Thank God for plugins"

While researching I found numerous people suffering the same issues with their database and there are tons of Google topics on the subject of reducing the database size because of the "revisions" feature in the latest version of WordPress. I am hopeful that WordPress developers will reduce the capability of the revisions feature and limit the revisions to 3-5 max. It appears that no thought was given to the impact of saving so many revisions on the database and I would expect them to correct this very soon.

We all like having a backup copy of our work and the security of knowing that if something happened like a power failure, we would have a revision to fall back on, but in one case I had 115 revisions to just one page alone! Multiply that times 30-40 pages on a site or blog and you end up with hundreds of revisions eating up your database. With so many great features added to the new version, I can't figure out why they overlooked this flaw. After a week of headaches and frustration, hours on the phone and support chat with my hosting company and hours of my own trying to research and solve my slow-loading and hanging problem, I am finally back to normal thanks to those 2 plugins.

So for anybody else experiencing slow page load, slow log in, slow page or post editing, check your revisions, if the numbers are high, it could be that the number of revisions you have is slowing down your database and site and could cause you to be dead in the water as far as getting any work done. So far I love everything about the new WordPress except for the "revisions" feature, it is too much (over-kill) so please WordPress Developers, add options or limit the number of revisions that are saved as well as the time between revisions being saved, and add some built-in controls to delete revisions or set how many revisions you want to keep.

We all need to give our feedback to WordPress so they can resolve this issue ASAP so please chime in on this subject and let them know. Thanks!

By
Allan Whitney
Owner/Administrator
MindVisionMedia.net

WordPress Basics - Advice for beginners

New to WordPress? Here's a bit of friendly advice: Take your Time and be Patient!

If you come from static HTML design, be prepared for a few surprises. Be prepared to learn best practices for backing up files and working with PHP and CSS. To accomplish what was easily accessible in Dreamweaver or another WYSIWYG web program, you'll have to install and use plugins to accomplish the same thing in WordPress.

If you are totally new to WordPress, just be patient. Haste definitely makes waste when it comes to WP. It can be very exciting designing your first website and seeing your idea come to life on the screen. The tendency is to rush and make changes right away without having the right perspective or a basic understanding of what WordPress is and what building a website consist of. Take a step back and digest each change, think about what the user will need and want, not so much what you want. After all, your visitors will visit your site more than you.

Adobe Cloud Services Good or Bad?

There is a lot of debate over Adobe's new "Cloud" services and whether it is fair to existing owners, hobbyist and occasional users. I have personally supported Adobe for about 20 years. 

I have defended them in the lengthy war between MAC and PC-based software, I have spent way too much money for their software over the years and dealt with their often inadequate support.

Now with their sudden switch to "cloud-based" software subscription only (meaning you can't buy Photoshop or Premiere anymore), I have mixed feelings but see myself leaving their ranks and moving on. I will keep my older paid-for versions and use them until they stop working. 

I may not have all the new bells and whistles but I still get the job done and that is all that matters in the end. Ninety percent of the people I have talked to about this are upset and committed to not supporting a forced rental of everything they offer instead of allowing the consumer to choose what they want and make a one-time purchase.

New Penguin 2.0 search alogorithm changes coming!

Google is preparing to launch its new search algorithm, Penguin 2.0 that could possibly effect your websites listing and standing with Google. The new algorithm increases spam and malware detection on hacked websites and is expected to launch in summer 2013. These changes are related to security and cracking down on both malicious and vulnerable sites.

If your site is or has been hacked, you could be blacklisted by Google search. However there are new tools built in to help you repair and restore your site to good standing as you will read below. If your site is identified as a spam or malware distribution site, it will be banned. Personally I think it is a good thing with all of the trickery taking place on the Internet these days.

According to Wordfence, Matt Cutts, head of the Google Web Spam team and SEO spokesman, has posted a preview of what is coming in the Penguin 2.0 release, due Summer 2013. Penguin 2.0 is the next major update of Google's search algorithm and it's associated tools and applications.

The changes coming in Penguin 2.0 update related to security are:

• Improved detection of hacked websites. This probably means your site is more likely to be blacklisted by Google when you are hacked and that it will be blacklisted sooner. 
• Improved communication with webmasters when your site is hacked. Currently if you sign into Google Webmaster Tools, you can select to receive a daily digest of issues related to your websites. My guess is that Google is expanding this to offer real-time email alerts when malware is detected on your site or when your site is compromised. 
• A possible differentiation between sites that are hacked and sites that serve up malware. 
• Better tools to diagnose and clean your hacked website. Matt describes a single place you can go to once your site has been hacked where you can get more information that will help you clean up your site. 
• Webmaster Tools will be providing more concrete details and "example URLs" that you can go to to diagnose your site. [No specifics on this]

Other interesting changes related to SEO are:

• Google will still give preference to high quality content that "users love, bookmark, come back to and visit over and over again". It sounds like repeat visitors may get a higher emphasis with the Penguin 2.0 update. 
• They will penalize paid links and paid websites that attempt to boost the ranking of other websites by linking to those other websites. They will be removing any Page Rank that those paid sites pass on to the sites they're trying to promote. 
• They are making two algorithm changes that will significantly affect the ranking of sites in sectors that are particularly spammy. 
• Penguin 2.0 will do a better job of giving sites who are clearly an authority in their space a higher ranking. 
• They will also attempt to soften penalties that were imposed on some sites with the release of Penguin 1.0. Specifically sites that are in a gray area but have some positive signals will see a higher ranking.

WordPress is particularly vulnerable because of its dynamic nature so this would be a good time to examine your sites vulnerability and increase your awareness of security issues and measures as I have to ensure your site is not effected. Always keep your login name and passwords strong and button down the hatches by not leaving old or outdated plugins and themes to remain inside your sites directory. Also monitor your posts and install malware detection on your site or server. Check with your web host to see what they can offer to protect you as well.

All we can do is cross our fingers and hope for the best. After-all, we are all targets of spam and malware so the battle will continue. lets stick together on this one and keep each other informed. Best of luck to all.

By
Allan Whitney
Owner/Administrator
MindVisionMedia.net