WordPress released a security and bug fix release earlier this month – version 3.3.1. This is a recommended update for your WordPress site. Details are at WordPress.org.
As always, we recommend backing up your site before installing updates. Please contact Main Street if you help with the backups or update.
WordPress 3.3 has been out for several weeks now and we have not heard of any issues or problems with it. This release mainly streamlines the backend and makes site administration even faster and easier than before.
We recommend making the update to 3.3 now. As usual, we recommend creating a backup of your site and your database, before the update. While we don’t expect any issues with the update, it’s always good to have a spare backup.
I’ve been in the web development business for over a decade, and I’ve never seen a site fail due to poor design or bad graphics. I’ve seen sites that were hampered by those, but it’s rarely fatal. What causes sites to fail is lack of content.
Good, healthy websites offer a constant stream of new content. And this content almost always starts with writing — what we call “copy” in the business.
Every month we work with businesses and non-profits who invest in shiny new websites. After the site launches, they commit to find someone to maintain it. Inevitably, this person is called the “webmaster”. When the organization goes shopping for a “webmaster” they almost always look for someone with design, programming and Photoshop skills. Usually this is the beginning of a death spiral of increasing website costs and decreasing value.
Good websites need content — copy, writing, news, articles, blog posts, success stories — whatever you call it. Yes, good design and graphics makes it more enjoyable, but even if you hire Michelangelo to do your design and Albert Einstein to do the programming, without content the site is just a pretty picture frame with no picture.
Good content brings back return visitors. Good content gets great search engine rankings. Good content is created by “writers” not “webmasters”. If you want someone to make your website successful, find a writer, preferably with a Journalism background, to be your webmaster.
If you don’t have anything new on your site, contract a writer to create one or two new articles for your website each month. Watch how that affects your search engine rankings and site traffic after a few months. Writers are not expensive, they work well as contractors and don’t need to be full-time employees.
If you are actively generating content for your site, consider contracting or hiring an editor. Get someone who can manage the content flow, make sure it all flows well, and covers all the basics. Churches and non-profits are notorious for frequently generating new content, but it often isn’t complete or lacks continuity.
If your site needs design work, then by all means hire a professional (hint: like MainStreetOpen.com), but once the design is done, you need a writer or editor to manage the site, not a programmer or designer.
End of rant, everyone back to work.
WordPress version 3.3 was released yesterday. There are the usual streamlining features and tweaks, but several new features that we are excited about:
These are some great new features that will make life easier for WordPress content editors. As usual, we don’t recommend immediately installing the new version, give it two or three weeks to prove out in the field before updating your site.
More details are available at WordPress.org.
We want to do our part to help stimulate the economy and help get jobs for the unemployed #occupy protestors and NBA players.
So for Black Friday we are offering 5 hour prepaid labor blocks for the 4 hour price – 5 hours for $400. We can’t guarantee your work will be done by a former protester or NBA player, (actually we can guarantee it won’t) but we can guarantee this is the best price we will offer for a long time.
This Black Friday special deal ends Wednesday, November 30th. You must use this link to get the Black Friday special.
Prepaid labor blocks are not refundable, all sales final. Please contact us prior to purchase if you have questions.
