Follow by Email

On the sidebar to the right is an innocuous box that invites you to submit your email address.

When you do that, you will receive notifications delivered to that address when a new article has been posted to this blog!

Follow (This Blog) By Email

A New "Gadget" for your blogs...

I just discovered a another valuable blogspot gadget, and I've added it to my own blogs!

You can see it on the right sidebar: "Follow By Email."

Here's how it works...

WordPress Plugin: WP eMember

I bought WP eMember, then spent most of the day learning how to install and configure the eMember plugin.

The price is what attracted me: the single payment covers a lifetime license for an unlimited number of websites. Users reported that they were still using it years later and hadn't paid anything extra.

WP eMember Plugin

WordPress Plugin: Paid Memberships Pro

I was researching WP eMember because it had been recommended. Evidently the $50 price for eMember pays for a forever license for unlimited sites.

Google led me to this review: The 8 Best WordPress Membership Plugins For Your Site (Venture Harbour ~ March, 2018).

The 8 reviews are:

1. Paid Membership Pro (Starting Price: Free)
2. Restrict Content Pro (Starting Price: $99)
3. MemberPress (Starting Price: $99/year)
4. WP eMember (Starting Price: $50)
5. MemberMouse (Starting Price: $20/month)
6. WishList Member (Starting Price: $97)
7. WPMU Dev WordPress Membership (Starting Price: $20/month)
8. CoinTent (Starting Price: Free)

First, though, the unnamed guest writer was really high on Paid Membership Pro!

Email Forwarders

I really like email forwarders.

In January 2018, I wrote and posted an article titled "Domain Management: Email Forwarders" (the link will open in a new window. You can read it now, and then return to continue reading here).

Here is a way to create a plain text file that you can use to quickly import forwarders into cPanel.

This technique will facilitate creating all the forwarders you need and want, and then review them before actually implementing them!

SSL at ABCInc-Domains Hosting is now free

It is easy for customers to drop their paid SSL certificates and installed free ones on a site hosted at ABCInc-domains.com!!

Planning your WordPress Website ~ Steps [1] - [8]

Planning and Building your WordPress Web Site

We build and repair WordPress web sites (MyWordPressWordPage.com) at A Better Computer, Inc.

We start off with you choosing one of the following options:

1. You do all the work. You research, read and watch YouTube videos to lean the skills you need. This series of articles will give you yet another perspective of "Best Practices."
2. ABCInc does all the work. You tell us what you want to see on your website; we'll make it happen! Ivaca Delic wrote an article for FreelancersTools.com. It's titled "Ultimate Web Design Brief Questionnaire for clients," but I haven't found anything brief about it ~ Delic has identified almost 75 questions. They're all good, and should be addressed before beginning a WordPress project.
3. You and ABCInc do the work together. In the early phases of your website, ABCInc will do most of the work, especially for those actions that are done only once. We'll be there as you complete the later phases. We'll start with a shortened version of Delic's questionnaire.

Regardless of who does the work, these next 10 posts describe what has to be done.

Read on!

Building a WordPress site ~ [1] Choosing & Registering a Domain Name

Choosing a domain name can be a challenge because it depends hits one of three levels:

1. What you want ~
2. What you need ~ 
3. What you can get ~

There's two parts to this section

Building a WordPress site ~ [2] Google Integration

I believe in leveraging Google resources for your web work!

Did you know that Google maintains a blog for their services? Visit Blog.Google/Products.

Building a WordPress site ~ [3] Choose a Hosting Provider

This section is TAN-B2: Technical and Necessary, But Boring!

The frustrating part is that there are so many variations to consider.

• Is this a new site being built from scratch?

Building a WordPress site ~ [4] cPanel (eMail)

I really like forwarders!

After you register your domain and arrange for hosting, it's time to create forwarders for your WordPress installation.

Building a WordPress site ~ [5] cPanel - Install Wordpress

You will need the following information before you install WordPress:

• Site Name
• Site Description ~ a tagline
• Admin Username ~ you will use this to log into the site once you've created it
• Admin Password ~ you will use this to log into the site once you've created it
• Admin Email ~ I recommend you use the admin forwarder you created in the previous step; otherwise enter your personal email

Building a WordPress site ~ [6] WordPress Plugins

Time to log into your new WordPress site!

You should immediately install an anti-virus plugin to protect your site. I am currently using the free version of WordFence.

Then you will add plugins recommended by ABCInc.

Building a WordPress site ~ [7] WordPress Themes

Themes are the presentation piece of your Web Page. They display how your information is presented on the screen.

By default, WordPress comes with three free themes already installed. All three of these are "responsive," which means they adjust to what device is being used: PC, laptop, tablet, or phone! The installed themes are:

• Twenty Nineteen
• Twenty Seventeen
• Twenty Sixteen

There are literally tens of thousands of themes available. Quality varies. (Discussion to follow)

Building a WordPress site ~ [8] Configure Wordpress

This is the last step before pouring in your content!

We have the plugins and themes installed and activated. There is one more menu choice. "Settings."

Installing WordPress on a Sub-Domain

From time to time I will teach/coach/mentor new web developers, and it is important to have a website where they can practice.

Fortunately, I have a shared account at ABCInc-domains.com that permits unlimited bandwidth and unlimited storage (disk space).

This allows me to create a WordPress installation for training, and then leave it up for 30 days at no cost to the student and no additional out-of-pocket cost to me!

Here is a complete video for installing WordPress on a subdomain..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfMgAAH9Jis

cPanel EMail Filtering

Administrators that have access to cPanel can find a lot of tools to help control spam!

WordPress Checklist

WordPress Beginner posted an article titled "18 Most Important Things You Need to Do After Installing WordPress"

I like to read what other people write, and eventually add thoughts to my own WordPress Checklist.

Here are the 18 things, and my thoughts/comments...

IP2Location WordPress Plugin

There are three things that sent me in search of this plugin:

1. Europe's new GDPR only applies to websites that target European Union countries. (GDPR= the General Data Protection Regulation.  It is a regulation in EU law on data protection and privacy for all individuals within the European Union. It addresses the export of personal data outside the EU.)
2. I've attended two WordPress Meetups where GDPR was discussed.
• In the first meeting, GDPR was briefly discussed. The bottom line was "if you're not doing business in Europe then don't worry about it."
• In the first hour of the 2nd WP meetup the speaker shared what her research had found. While she acknowledged that GDPR is not here now, we should be aware of it anyway. She said that California is already considering something similar.
3. Constant attacks from outside the US on my websites; several times WordFence has reported that they've blocked failed/bogus user attempts. In new sites, spurious comments have been installed.

WordPress Plugin: Members (by Justin Tadlock)

Chris Lema mentioned this plugin in his blog "Comparing WordPress Membership Plugins" ~ He wrote "Justin Tadlock’s Members is free. 100% free. That means you can download it for free. You can also review the code for free. You can change it for free. You can install it on 1 site for free – and you can do it on 100 sites for free. That’s amazing, isn’t it. And it’s easy, quick to install, intuitive and all that!" Members is Lema's first choice in his recommendations where Price is the primary consideration.