Late last week, I was startled to find that people had been signing up as users on my Wordpress site.  This was about the same time that Tawnya Sutherland of VAnetworking discovered that one of her websites had been hacked due to a security breach in an older version of Wordpress.  Well, just before Tawnya made her announcement, I had posted my puzzling question on VAnetworking.  The response that I received from member Crystal Pina was to go to my dashboard and then go to Settings>General there is a box there that was checked saying “Membership – Anyone can register.” (more…)

Well, I believe great progress has been made! I am very happy with my new site. If you are into reading, chatting with others, Tweeting, searching, more reading, more talking, re-installing about 8 times and reuploading everything, then learning WordPress is for you!

No, I’m kidding; if you have the patience, WordPress is learnable with a little bit of help from friends. There are many experts out there and they are willing to share tips and tricks. The thing that I really find amazing is the fact that one piece of software could have so many variables! Good and bad. While I was searching for the reason that I was unable to upload pictures to my blog, I came across so many different opinions and solutions. How do you know where to start? I had no idea where to start. So, it was trial and error, documenting each fix and what the results were so that I was able to either reverse the “fix” or pinpoint exactly what my particular problem was. It sounds tedious but it was, (and will be), a learning experience. You will be surprised by how much you pick up while trying to get one thing right; then you are able to use that knowledge for another step you are trying to take.

So stay tuned and let me know what you think of the site. I will be looking for constant improvement ideas and suggestions. Remember, my goal is to become so proficient at site design and maintenance that I may offer it as a service.

I am so excited that I was able to find and implement this bug fix by myself.  Now I can embellish my new site with lots of images.  I found the very simple fix at http://www.ibuyringtones.com/iblog/wordpress/wordpress-uploading-image-problem/.  The one that worked for me was the very last post, suggesting that under the Miscellaneous Topic in the Settings Menu you change “Store uploads in this folder”settings from “wp-content” to “wp-content/uploads”.  I think my setting was pointed to a really complex place.  Lots of numbers and letters.  I simply changed it to “wp-content/uploads” and viola!

I just got through with three phone calls with my web host only to discover the problem that I am having is NOT my problem!  I was trying to add a photo of Niagara Falls to my previous post because it would be nice to look at.  Good idea, right?  Well, every time I would click the Upload/Insert Image button on the admin panel in Wordpress, the only thing I would get is an image placeholder!

Now, thanks to my web host, I know how to flush my dns, (whatever that is) and I know that I can change the permissions in my wp-content file, (this one I figured out myself).  Well, none of these attempts solved my uploading issue.  Finally, the last attendant I got at my web host told me he would go above and beyond the services that they offer and talk to “the boys in the back room”.  Boy, am I glad he did.  Turns out that it wasn’t me or my computer – it was Wordpress 2.8.  There seems to be a bug in there.

When I have the bug repellant located I will be sure to share it with you.

Welcome to my new blogsite.  eZone Secretarial Services used to have a really nice website that was for the most part, neglected by me.  It was static – not too many changes happened there.  That is all changing right now. 

I attended FoVA09 in beautiful Niagara Falls, Canada this past June and it was quite a beneficial trip!  I attended many learning sessions about such topics as a two part Social Networking & Blogging Workshop with Kathie Thomas, (all the way from Australia), Creating a Marketing Budget and Plan to Help your Business Group by Jeannine Clontz  and another two part event titled Creating Websites using Wordpress led by Frances Palaschuk.  It was the last seminar mentioned that got me into this project.  Don’t get me wrong, I learned a whole lot and Frances presented it beautifully making it sound so easy.  So here I am attempting to do this myself!  Wish me luck and enjoy the ride!