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Wordpress is just a friendlier tool for bloggers. Wordpress would have to be one of the most exciting programs that I’ve worked with in a long time and it’s OS. With the lastest release of Wordpress 2.5, every bloggers will be busying upgrading. However many run into trouble in the process.

So here is a short report by Scott Frangos on 5 important mistake to avoid, so your upgrade goes smoothly.

1. Failure to Back-up your WordPress data: You should have a plugin installed to do this on a regular basis for you automatically. The one I use is at http://www.ilfilosofo.com/blog/wp-db-backup/. Before upgrading, download an up-to-date back-up to your hard disk. TIP: Then do a second back-up for good measure using the “Manage>Export” function in your Admin. area to download an XML file of your data. Now you’re double protected.
2. Failure to Turn Off Plugins before Upgrading: Just go to your plugin area in WordPress Admin, and turn them off to avoid conflicts in the new version. TIP: All plugins may not be updated and ready for the new version, so be sure to check at the author’s sites for the latest version notes.
3. Reliance on Automatic Update Programs or Plugins: Sometimes these work ok, sometimes they don’t. Hosting companies provide automatic updater/installers like “Fantastico” which can be a big mistake if your last upgrade was done manually. Sometimes the automatic program does not offer the newest version for upgrading for several months. I used to use a plugin for updating WordPress, but learned the hard way not to trust it. The moral? Do it manually — find the instructions here: http://codex.wordpress.org/Upgrading_WordPress
4. Failure to Save your wp-config.php File: Use a good FTP program to save the wp-config.php file, making sure you don’t write over it when you upload the new version of WordPress. Why? That’s the file that contains your database hook-up information (WordPress needs to hook into a MySQL database). If you already made the mistake, there’s a way to fix it. Learn your database username, password, and host server (contact your hosting company). Then use the “wp-config-sample.php” file to input the information — you’ll see instructions when you open the file. Save-as wp-config.php and upload to your server… that should get it.
5. Failure to Protect your wp-content, themes, and plugins Folders: Do not overwrite these folders with folders of the same name in the new installation. Why? All your particular themes, plugins and special folders in wp-content will be gone. FTP a backup of those folders to your hard-disk first. Study the upgrade instructions at http://codex.wordpress.org/Upgrading_WordPress again. Upload only new items to those folders.

Back-up. Turn off plugins. Upgrade WordPress manually. Save your wp-config.php file and themes, plugins and wp-content. There you go. Good luck, BlogMasters.

Now revealed all that Wordpress 2.5 on 10th March 2008. So how does it compare to version 2.3.x. I have read a good post showing the major difference which you want to know. Just a sample of difference as shown below.

(Wordpress 2.3.3 dashboard.)

(Wordpress 2.5 dashboard)

More on wordpress 2.5 here

In this post I will list down free Wordpress Tutorial that i used to build my site. I hope you would enjoy and share with me other site that gives similar service.

Here is my favorite list

1. Urban Giraffe

2. WpDesigner

3. 7 Essential Wordpress Hacks

4. Wordpress Tutorial

You may also need this to code your css style.

1. CSS Tutorial

2. CSS Library

I hope this will be resourceful as is for me. Please share any other source that I did not mention here for all to benefits.

Thanks all for visiting

Ivonson

When deciding how to create a blog the first thing for you to
decide is what’s the purpose of your blog. Are you creating this
for your own personal pleasure, to earn some extra money or to
create a business or idea that you would like to get out to
others?

Once you have decided this the next step is to look at what other
blogs of similar topic are being creted. This may just give you the

inspiration you need. When you feel ready to begin the first step

is find the right blog provider to host you.

There are many to choose from, some of which are free and others
which charge only a small fee to use their sites.

Learning how to start a blog is quite easy. Once you have signed
up you will see that there are templates you can use to make
getting started easy. A simple click on a button and you will
have the look you want and then can continue to customize it to
suit your desires.

You can add many things to your blog from photos, guestbooks to
buttons and backgrounds. Make it you because that is what you are
after or make it reflect your company and what you are trying to
promote.

The sites where you pay, even a small fee, do have slightly more
to offer in choices when it comes to customizing your blog. Next
you need to decide on who you want to be able to access your blog.
You can make it private and only have it readable by your friends,
coworkers and family or you can have it open to anyone wandering
the internet who thinks what you are saying might be of interest
to them.

Once you have learned how to start a blog you will be able to
begin posting. Do not be offended or feel down if it takes a
little time before you get traffic coming to your blog. Visit
other blogs and make comments that include your blog address.

This will encourage others to come to see what you have to say.
It will also persuade those whose blogs you are reading to leave
comments about your blog once they have seen it. This will further
drive traffic to you.

Check out www.blogspot.com ,www.blogger.com , and if you already
have a website with cPanel look in fantasos and there should
be several blog applications you can use to install a blog
in just minutes.

I recommend using Wordpress. There are several Auto Generating
Content applications you can use for updating your content.
There are also many Wordpress template packages available
with adsense already incorporated into the design where you
can monetize your blog.

Google and other search engines Love Blogs and index them
regularly. Set up a my Yahoo webpage and use it to ping your
blog everytime you make a new post and this will immediately
get your blog indexed.

Wordpress has many widgets and addons you can use with your
blog. You’ll want to have an RSS feed for your readers to
subscribe to so they are notified of updated content every
time you make a post.

Are you aware there is a new open source community project underway called the WordPress Plugin Database, located at wp-plugins.net. The web site is user-friendly with about 2,500 WordPress plugins and counting?

“The WordPress Plugin Database is a categorized list of WordPress plugins, complemented by a WordPress Plugin Manager that allows one-click installs,” say the database maintainer. “For users, wp-plugins.net provides a browse able list of plugins, and RSS feeds you can subscribe to in order to get inform of new plugins and updates. For developers, wp-plugins.net makes it easy to promote your plugin and keep users informed of new versions.”

As for us everyday users WordPress fanatics who are constantly searching for cool new plugins to make our site attract visitors and earn some money, the WordPress Plugin Database is full of various plugins that can help create web site traffic to your blog, sell your ebooks, share web site links, podcast your message, offer a public forum for recurring visitors, and fight spam in the process.

Below is a short list of free plugins I discovered in this new database that can drive traffic to your blog, sell terrific products, and keep visitors on your site for a while - the perfect monetization strategy for every blogging entrepreneur.

Would you like to add a Public Forum to your blog? Simple Forum is a free plugin that is described as a “simple and straightforward forum that does the sort of stuff a forum is supposed to.” Simple Forum currently has 71 features you can use to develop a growing community of returning visitors who are encouraged to speak to each other, and who share common interests with you, the brilliant blog owner and forum manager expert. Search engine spiders love the fresh content provided by a community forum. Simple Forum can support your forum member’s comments in 17 languages.

http://www.stuff.yellowswordfish.com

Would you like to monetize your blog by selling your products and services with a WordPress shopping cart? The free WP eCommerce Lite shopping cart plugin is described as “an industrial strength, elegant, easy to use, fully featured shopping cart application suitable for selling your products, services, and or fees online.” You can upgrade to the eCommerce Gold plugin for just $15. If you don’t have any products to sell, you can set up this shopping cart to sell products offered by Amazon.com, Art.com, and so on. http://www.instinct.co.nz/?p=16

Reciprocal link directories create backlinks to your site that helps improve your site’s search engine ranking, and most shared link directories are not free. Plus, most blogs don’t offer a shared link directory. The free WP Link Directory is described as “the first and the only one link directory plugin on the Internet for WordPress admin to store and maintain a set of links in classified categories.” This link directory plugin can match your blog theme.

http://www.alectang.com/wordpress-link-directory/

Podcasting is a web site traffic generation phenomenon that has seen over 6 million people download MP3 podcasts. That’s not including the millions of people who prefer to listen without downloading. Here’s an idea. Why not record your blog articles as a podcast, and then submit your articles to podcast directories? Even if you don’t like the sound of your voice, there are software programs online that you can use to speak your written words with a more pleasing sound.

PodPress is a free plugin described as “a dream plugin for Podcasters using WordPress,” and “a full-blown Podcasters Plugin for WordPress.” With Podpress, you can post a podcast along with your article for visitors to download, or listen to without downloading. Why not interview an expert in your niche by telephone, and post your conversation as a podcast with your article?

http://www.mightyseek.com/podpress

And finally, every high-traffic blogger would love to find a way to eliminate spam. Spam Karma 2 (SK2) is a free spam fighting plugin developed by the WordPress Plugin Directory guys. SK2 is described as “an anti-spam plugin for the WordPress blogging platform. It is meant to stop all forms of automated blog spam effortlessly, while remaining as unobtrusive as possible to regular commenters.”

http://www.wp-plugins.net/doc/sk2/

Hurry, don’t forget to upgrade your WordPress blog to the latest 2.3 version released in September of 2007. WordPress 2.3 offers new article keyword tagging features, which means improved search engine ranking and more web site traffic for you: wordpress.org/download/