I have been planning and preparing for this launch for nearly five months, so I am very excited to finally have the site launched.

To celebrate the launch, I have…

• published 13 posts.
• run a giveaway of a Leatherman wave.
• started a Facebook page.
• built my Twitter profile.

Launching this site has been a new learning experience for me.  On my past blogs, I have simply started posting, and the following and traffic have slowly built.  This time, however, I used a splash page to build a subscriber base of more than 100 people… before launch day.

What I Learned…

• Splash pages are a big help.
• Proofreading is essential (If I don’t fix my own mistakes, my readers will).
• Expectations are rarely met (My traffic was good, but not nearly what I expected).

In the future, I have more exciting plans for my website… starting with a manifesto release next month.

Why Free?

I am able to offer this as a free service because the hosting companies pay me $65 – $100 for each person who purchases their hosting through me.  In effect, I am making more than $65 for each install!

Because this enables me to provide the installation service free to my users, I am able to sell it more easily.  No one has to pay anything extra to use my service.

What I Provide

When someone does sign up for my service I will:

• Install WordPress
• Install 40+ Themes
• Install 30+ Plugins
• Setup an Email Address (something@theirdomain.com)
• Provide Spam Protection
• Improve SEO (fix the permalink structure)

So far, I have spent about 17 hours designing the site and writing the content.  Now, I just need to setup one more affiliate account, and I will be ready to start!

What I Accomplished

• Updated the WordPress version from 2.3 to 2.8.
• Customized the Atahualpa Theme to match Mrs. Moll’s main website, TheUrbanHomemaker.com.
• Setup a Feedburner RSS and email feed to boost reader retention.
• Optimized the permalinks for search engines.
• Added social bookmarking buttons at the bottom of each post to aid in site promotion.

What I Learned

• I now understand how to use the Plesk platform better.
• I learned how to use desktop-side ftp clients whereas before I had only used server-side ftp programs.
• I gained experience in CSS because I used it to modify the Atahualpa Theme.
• I practiced using HTML by creating the subscription widget.

This was a great learning experience, and I am grateful for the opportunity to hone my web design skills.  Because I enjoyed this project so much, I hope to do more similar projects soon.

Attempted Automatic Upgrade

First, after getting the information for her admin panel, server, and FTP, I backed up all her posts and other settings – just in case something went wrong with the upgrade. Next, I attempted to upgrade from the admin panel of her blog.  On newer versions of WordPress, an automatic upgrade option is available under Tools -> Upgrade.  Unfortunately, however, that option was not available in version 2.3.

Attempted To Upload Via Plesk

Once I realized that was not an option, I located instructions for manual upgrading, and I began looking for the FTP (File Transfer Protocol) options.  All my experience until now has been with cPanel, but her blog’s server used Plesk.  On cPanel the FTP section is located server-side with a handy button to open it.  Looking through her Plesk panel, I attempted to find the FTP button, but it was not there.

Uploaded Using File-Zilla

After a little searching, I decided Plesk did not have it, so I started trying to figure out how to use the FTP URL.  I visited the site, entered my credentials, and saw a list of the files currently on the site… but no option to upload.  Puzzled, I sent an email to the webmaster, Chris Tingom, explaining that I was used to cPanel’s easy FTP client, and asked him for any tips.

He replied quickly with a link to File-Zilla and a few other desktop-based FTP applications that I could use.  Downloading File-Zilla, I quickly upgraded my client’s site, completely replacing the wp-admin and the wp-includes directories, but leaving the wp-content directory intact.

Upgrade Complete!

After a few problems with the wp-config.php file, I completed the upgrade.  Thankfully, no content was damaged, so I did not have to use the backup.

With this experience behind me, I now feel much more comfortable upgrading WordPress manually and working with FTP.

I am writing all these posts now and scheduling them using the WordPress schedule feature and Google Calendar so that, once school starts, I will not have to write posts as much.  During the school year, I will be busy writing for my essay class and studying for all my other classes.

WordPress Problems

When I first thought of putting rotating quotes there, I planned to use a WordPress plugin.  However, because WordPress just updated to version 2.8 recently, none of the quote plugins work.  Therefore, I started looking for some way to code it myself.

Online Searching

After a quick online search, I found a page that provided javascript code to design a quote rotator.  After creating a .js file on my web server, I copied and pasted the important code, added my recommendations, created HTML anchor links to the quotes on my references page, and saved the file.

Create Widget

The hard part completed, I made a text widget, inserted a code snippet linking to my main file, and saved changes.  Because some browsers do not have javascript enabled, I added a short HTML paragraph to display in browsers with javascript disabled.

Completed

Now the “References” widget randomly displays one recommendation each time a page loads.  Whenever I want to add another reference, I can simply edit the .js file on my web server, and the changes will be made instantly.