‘You need to make this file writable before you can save your changes’

Here’s a short video on how to solve this problem, by setting the theme file permissions so editing is allowed.

PS..  It’s also the first time I have used the Viddler video hosting service, so I am trying that out, too.

It’s a business building ‘giveaway’ event, with a difference - as well as helping members and contributors, it will also raise money for a very worthy cause in Nepal.

Here’s a video made by the organisers to explain the thinking behind the event and how it will work.  It also shows the charitable venture, the event will support.

You can take part too.  You can help to Make a Difference.

Join as a Contributor now - the event doesn’t begin until 15 November, so you have plenty of time to organise your product gift.

Or Join as a Member and collect some carefully selected, valuable products, once the doors open.

2. Install the Akismet plugin (developed by the Wordpress founders) to control spam comments. It will allow you to focus on creating good content, not spend time deleting spam.

3. Make a new post regularly, several times a week if possible. Yes it’s hard work for most of us, but it will pay dividends.

4. Publish only good content. Write nothing that makes you uneasy, deep-down. Only post content you would happily show and explain to your mother. Respect your visitors.

5. Use the Google XML Sitemaps plugin. It will make sure Google is aware of your efforts and contributions to the World.

6. Try to monetize your blog. Ethical advertising and promotions are good, providing they pass the test of #4. Earning some money from your blog, will encourage you to stick with the process.

7. Make your permalinks “pretty”. It’s not hard to tell Wordpress to use a more descriptive URL link for your posts and pages. You can easily find a tutorial or video, to explain how. Your visitors and the search engines, will appreciate your efforts.

8. Find out how to publish audio and video on your blog (Anarchy media plugin is great). The internet is evolving into a network of many millions of mini tv and radio channels. Be part of the broadcasting revolution - Wordpress makes it fairly easy. And your blog visitors will like it.

9. Encourage your visitors to leave a comment or two, on your blog. It makes it better for everyone. And it works with the sprit, of how the internet is evolving.

10. Publish YOUR experiences, hopes, fears, desires and ambitions. Share the good stuff. Write about what’s important to you. Ignore the current “big things”. Follow your personal path. It will make it more interesting to other people and more fulfilling for you.

I was not writing new posts… Just editing existing posts to add new images I’d found, plus tidying a few bits to improve readability.

Then it struck me.. the DATE at the top of the posts, still showed the original creation date. For some of my posts, this was more than 12 months ago..

Not very fresh-looking!

On your blog, you may not show the post date at all (like here on kevinsbrown.com).

But, IF you recognise this problem, here’s a quick freshen-up fix, which I found today and implemented. It can transform the fresh look of your blog.

Login as the administrator and go into the Theme editor (hold on, I have to say take a backup of your existing theme first, just in case it all goes wrong…)

Select the template, such as “Main Index” (index.php) or “Single Post” (single.php), or both..

Find a line of code containing <?php the_time(

and replace it carefully with something like..

last updated: <?php the_modified_date(

Then, when you save the edited post, instead of the original post date showing, the last edited date will display - making it look so much more fresh and up to date.

Just like the major, online news websites…

This one quick change has certainly improved the look of the blog in question. It now looks current again and emphasises the worthwhile updates I made today.

But I bought Chris Rempel’s recent report, “the Conduit Method”, last week and it’s so good I feel compelled to let you know about it.

It points out a new way of thinking (for me, anyway) about affiliate commission from third-party products.

The report describes a clever way to approach affiliate product promotions. And specifically, how to structure your website to increase the likelihood of agreeable results.

The conduit method report has quite literally, changed my mindset on this stuff. I am applying it now and look forward to reporting good results. You will hear them first, here …

In fact, I was so taken by the system, I have created a Wordpress theme specifically to apply it. My theme was initially for my own use and it is a work in progress, but I have today decided to share it.

The theme picks up on the points Chris makes, about how to present these promotions. I expect the “fill in the blanks” outline will speed-up my work hugely, as I create lots of these pages.

Here is what my “Conduit Theme” for Wordpress looks like..

Now I should say at this point, Chris Rempel says in his report that blogs are not as good as basic html websites for this. But I aim to prove him wrong

He goes on to say, the reason blogs are not so good is because the layout of most blog themes, is less than ideal.

BUT… I have created a specific, custom theme for his method. So my theme should be better than blog average!

I think, the ease of updating a Wordpress blog, plus the seo advantages, will outweigh any other drawbacks.

So you can come with me on this journey…

Just.. Click here to get the Conduit report though my link. Then Contact me with your paypal email and I will let you have the custom Wordpress theme.

Here are some details on the Conduit Method report.

Format: Report (pdf) of 13 pages. Plus 2 good demonstration videos. Plus mp3 audio interview. (Plus my custom Wordpress theme “Conduit Theme” as a bonus for buyers from here)

Delivery: Digital download

Price: $14.95 (only!)

Recommended. Let’s have some fun together, trying this out!

REMINDER: To get my bonus custom Wordpress theme for the Conduit Method, just contact me once you have got your copy, with the Paypal email you used. Once I verify your purchase, I’ll let you have the Wordpress theme, so you can get going using the method on your blog..

It’s the sweet-looking, small speech-bubble image, with the letter “K” inside.

And if you add this blog to your favorites or bookmarks (and I hope you will!), you’ll also see the image appear in your list of bookmarks,

This should help my blog to stand-out from the other sites.

If you would like to add a favicon image to your Wordpress blog, here’s how to do it.

STEP 1

Make a 16×16 pixel image and save as an “ico” image. Call it favicon.ico

You can use the free graphics program GIMP to do this, if you don’t already have suitable graphics editing software.

If you don’t want to make your own image, you may download and use this favicon I’ve made.
  

Just right-click and choose “save image as”, to save it to your desktop.

STEP 2

Upload the favicon using an FTP program to your server, at the top level of your blog.

Rename it to favicon.ico if necessary.

STEP 3

Login as admin for your blog. Ensure this line of code is in the header.php file, of the theme you are using.

Add the code line using the theme editor, if it’s not there already.

<link rel=”shortcut icon” href=”<?php echo get_settings(’home’); ?>/favicon.ico” />

Here’s an image, showing the theme editor being used to edit the file header.php …

STEP 4

Refresh your blog and check the favicon shows as expected.

Hope you like it!

Can we believe anything on TV (or other media) any more?

Should I run for President? (And I am Kevin Brown - perhaps I should make that clear

Tempting challenge…

To do this for yourself (and have some fun!)..

1. Watch the video and think.. (how?)
2. Wait until the end of the video and click the screen. (cool, by itself)
3. Scroll down to “2. Embed This Video On Your Site Or Blog”
4. Type in your first name and last name (no opt-in subscribe needed)
5. Click “Update”
6. Copy and paste the embed code, to your blog or website.
7. Watch the video (like I did..) and think WOW!
8. Email the link to your friends.
9. Run for US President (optional)

Have fun and marvel at today’s technology.

This looks to be a very interesting website which allows you to produce ‘tv’ shows and broadcast them over the net.

It also makes it easy to distribute your content ‘live’ to various platforms such as websites, blogs, Facebook, MySpace etc.

And a really cool feature, is it will automatically publish a Twitter.com tweet for you, whenever you produce a new show.

Below is my kyte channel, embedded here in this post.

I have created 3 ’shows’ today, using 3 different methods:

1. Uploaded some photos from my computer into a slideshow on kyte. Then added a piece of kyte’s commercial music they offer to producers, to make a nice slideshow with quality background music.

2. Uploaded a single photo from my computer and produced a single image ’show’.

3. Took a photo with my mobile phone and emailed it from the mobile to kyte. This went straight into a new show on the channel - very nice, but I need next time to make sure the subject line of the email is set correctly as it becomes the title of the show.

I will report further on this…

I got home a couple of days ago, after a two night stopover in Singapore. (will post some pics later)

Got to know some excellent guys doing business on the internet and learned some good stuff.

I really liked Asia (it was my first visit) and I want to go again soon.

Here are a few photos (I have lots more) …

Some Of The Gang At The Hotel (Where’s Riley?)

There’s Kevin - Doing Things Backwards

Two Kevins And John At Lunch

The Gardens Of Our Hotel

I’m already getting involved in some joint venture promotions with the guys I met. So there’s immediate benefits, plus I hope, longer term relationships to come.

Thanks again to Kevin for making it happen and to everyone who went.

It should also help you customize other WordPress themes to your requirements.

The video shows how to insert image links into the offer box in the header area, and make it display correctly.

Video tip on showing product offer links in the header of the Wordpress PowerBlogger theme

Do please leave a comment.