Useful links this week

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I’ve been rather lax in my “around the web” reading this week. Since I have been busy with writing and composing songs, there hasn’t been much time for anything else. Speaking of songs, one of my new ones is just below here. I’d appreciate it if you’d listen to it. That would really make my day!

So, back to around the web - the list is short this time but all should be back to normal soon. I’m nearly finished with the above-mentioned songs and will be able to get back to writing and design soon.

First on the list is the release of WordPress 2.5. I’ve been using and testing it for a few weeks now on a couple of my sites and really love it. My only quibble is with the “write post” because the categories and tags along with a couple of other things that used to be in the sidebar, are now below the post box. This just makes it a bit more difficult for the way I like to work and since I spend a lot of time writing, it’s quite the major annoyance. I suppose if you don’t post much, it’s not going to bother you. But for me, I hate it. Otherwise, WP2.5 is totally awesome. I love the layout of the dashboard and there’s better managment of plugins and widgets which is a huge benefit.

I ran across a great series by Lorelle Van Fossen of Lorelle on WordPress that is excellent. It’s called “Blog Struggles” and is a series of posts on things bloggers struggle with from content ideas to planning to focus and more. If you want to take your blog higher or just find your groove or whatever, go check it out. Well written and quite helpful for new and seasoned bloggers alike. Lorelle also has book out called “Blogging Tips: What Bloggers Won’t Tell You About Blogging” that I’m planning to get soon. It sounds good.

And lastly, Darren at ProBlogger.com writes about 20 pages bloggers should consider. The top 5 on Darren’s list are: an about page, contact page, press page, disclaimer page, and an FAQ page. You can read the rest of the article at ProBlogger.com for the remaining 15. It’s a helpful article for me as I’m often wondering just what I should have on my blog. This has helped answer some of those questions. However, I’m not entirely sure I want 20 pages listed at the top of the blog. I think it would look cluttered. Perhaps I’ll consider creating a page with a list of pages or something like that. If you follow Darren’s advice, how would you add those pages to your site?

I hope you’re enjoying your weekend. I’m glad it’s finally stopped snowing/raining (yes, it snowed here in the Seattle area on Thursday and Friday). It’s not very sunny but at least it’s not totally wet. I can live with that.

anniesig1