Today we tried to upgrade to WordPress 2.8 and faced few issues. Let is a short post describing the same. By the way, WordPress 2.8.1 Beta is available for download.

Earlier today, Smart Blog Tips was upgraded to WordPress 2.8. Sad thing is the transition was not smooth. First of all the PHP Memory Limit bug stinged us. After increasing the allotted Memory to 64MB, we could manage to do the automatic update. However, the problem was not over yet. The theme compatibility crept up. Related post was shown twice on the page bottom. Few plugins refuse to load. And over all the experience was patchy. Thank goodness we have our data backed up, so incase if anything gets lost, preparation was there for a fresh install.

Finally things are back up with couple of hour’s downtime. And this hit the analytics stats pretty bad. But since it was sunday, and the activity on this blog is lowest on Sundays, we hope not many visitor were disappointed. There are few issues still but then atleast we got up and running for the moment.

WordPress 2.8.1 Beta is available to download. This is like a Service Pack release, where few bugs that poped up in version 2.8 are taken care of. Here are the major bug this update resolves:

• get_categories() function and incompatibility with certain themes
• Reduced Dashboard Memory Usage
• In case of a failed upgrade, accidental file deletion is avoided
• Fixed certain issues with Rich Text Editor Loading
• Beefed up security for plugins that do not provide xplicit permission checks

Links:

• WordPress 2.8.1 Beta
• How to autmatically upgrade WordPress 2.8 to 2.8.1

Remember this is a Beta release. To use it at your own risk. Have a nice Day..!!

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But the most important of all these to me is Smart Blog Tips. It is the most dearest of my all Online Properties. I would like to use this post to quickly note few statistics for this Blog. Hope you find them interesting.

Total Post: 101

Time Span: 14 months (Around 2 per week)

Comments: 227 (2.2 per Blog Post)

Total Visits: 10,800 (18,000 Pageviews)

Pagerank: PR3 (Homepage) and many in PR2 and PR1

Revenue: No revenue model applied or Advertising/Promotion done yet

These are just a few statistics I wanted to share with you people. I am a lot buzy these days than I used to be when I started this blog. However I have tried my best to not neglect this blog. Now going forward, there are few changes I am coming up with this one. Let me know your opinions.

1. Advertising: The blog will be open for advertising soon enough. What rate and mode would be, I have not yet decided on it yet. But any Advertising I put, the most important factor would be it should not affect the reading experience.
2. Promotion: I have not done any promotion for this blog till date. Going forward I would be using a resource of mine for manual submission to directories.
3. Services: It always pleases me to provide Blogging related services. The Services would be mostly related to Setting up a Blog, Designing a Theme and SEO Promotions. More about that later.
4. More Content: More focus on Blog News and Make Money Tips (Affiliate Marketing). Plus increasing the frequency of the Posts from 2 per week to almost 4 per week.
5. More Polish Layout: The layout would be more polished as I am working on improvising the theme to bring more content accessible to the readers. 

These are just a few things running in the back of my mind. Let me know your views. As you can see I have not finalized on anything. Help me do that.

Thanks for being part of the journey so far. My most important critic and most important companion in this journey is none other than the readers. Hope you keep showing the same love towards this site going forward.

Have a nice Day..!!

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Later today I would be updating the new theme for Smart Blog Tips. The theme came out pretty nicely. Here are the changes you will find going forward:

• Splashing new theme based on Hybrid by Justin. Fresh Color Theme.
• Magazine style layout, better standards compliance, more content on front page.
• Total revamp of Blogging Categories. More Emphasis on Tips, Tutorials, News Update etc.
• More Socializing Options. Better organized RSS divided into Blogging Tips, News etc.
• Introduction of Contest and great prizes up for grabs… And more and more…
• Blogging Inspiration would be the buzz word. The tagline would be changed to “Inspiration Blogging.. to unleash the super blogger in you..” Expect more inspirational post. Each post would be targeted to help you get one step closer to being a better blogger.

This change has a superior motive of revamping my other blogs and create a Eco System with more synergy. More about that later. Enjoy in the meantime.

A walk down the road on an Autumn evening lush with fallen leaves, feeling the fresh wind brush against my body, sending little chill down my spine. Awesome. Note: I m not a moody or lunatic

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I recently upgraded my personal blog Thinkjayant with latest version of Hybrid Theme. Now its Smart Blog tips. It would be done most probably by this weekend. In the mean time, there might be broken links or temporary outage. Although I would make sure none of this happens, just wanted to update the visitors.

The new theme would bring lot of options, extensibility, sleek layout and run on latest WordPress Version. Just keep your fingers crossed and do visit back to check out the new look, layout and functionality.

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Have a nice Day..!!

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Now Hybrid comes into picture. So what has changed. Well, nothing much. Options was a good theme but pretty difficult to customize if you want a very different layout. Hybrid brings in more power, flexibility, future proof and most importantly urge me to change this blog’s theme again.

So I would be working on the change in the coming weeks. There would be no or minimal disruption of the site’s uptime (touchwood). I have not yet decided to retain the site’s color theme and layout or not. Please help me decide.

Should I retain the site’s color theme and layout while moving to new Hybrid theme?

What’s in the kitty?

I have been customizing Hybrid WordPress theme and pretty soon will come up with three themes including the one that will be hosting this website. Here’s a sneak preview on one of them. Its almost done.

This theme along with others would be up for sale on my upcoming portfolio website:

Moddify.com

I have not yet decided on any specific figure yet but would be pretty cheap, so anyone can give it a shot. Plus I will offer installation service and further personalization service for a small fee. More details about that can be obtained form Moddify.com in a couple of days.

Oops..!! Forgot to say, there gonna be free themes too. Lots of them. And premium ones like these would be available to lucky few via Contest been held on SmartBlogTips and my other blogs.

I am looking for more opinions from the visitors. Do comment and share them.

Bookmark us or fetch our RSS Feeds / Email updates. Have a Nice Day..!!

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I was just fiddling with Aaron’s new SEO Toolbar for Firefox when I noticed a Page Rank 3 against my blog. I rechecked it with Google Toolbar to be doubly sure. Now hold on for a second here..!! I knew there was a page rank update going, but since i was a bit busy with work, I did not bother to check it out.

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Page Rank 3

Now, the strange thing is I was not expecting a Page Rank. Reason was simple. I was just doing the plain old technique of

• Writing quality content
• Linking only where necessary
• Allowing do-follow comments and
• Commenting value added comments on other blogs in the niche

My strategy was to setup my Blog, leave it for some time like a year, and when the domain is old enough, go out for the SEO related promotions (like targeting specific keywords, link building, backlinks etc). Hence, it comes as a surprise that Smart Blog Tips have jumped from PR 0 to PR 3 in the recent Google Page Rank Update without any deliberate SEO promotions.

Isn’t it great. I started the year with a new category of “Blogger Inspiration” and now I have another example of it. My own blog. I thought it must be a one time thing but the surprise just gets better.

My personal Blog ThinkJayant, which does not have much content except pictures, also jumped from PR 0 to PR 3. Looks like new blogs do not need any extra ordinary techniques after all. Just concentrate on your niche and provide fresh content to the Search Engines.

And the final icing on the cake is me achieving the goal of $1000 in the month of December. Now, most of the income was made by helping new bloggers with WordPress Theme modification, advice on strategy, SEO tips etc. at very affordable rates.

*Note: I must confess that I was very close to sell the site for a mere 40$ back in mid 2008 but then decided to keep it and build on it. Check Here

Goodies on the Way

Now time for some good news for the most important part of our site – OUR READERS

• Free WordPress Themes on their way

A Good Blog theme is always necessary to make good impression. Whether its your personal blog or professional blog, a good theme is as necessary as hosting your WordPress on your own Webspace. It gives a high sense of personalization to the Blog and makes it feel special. So I have been working on some Blog Theme Framework and have decided to release free themes for the readers within a short time. A better way to be informed would be to subscribe to my RSS Feed or Email Newsletter.

• Personalize WordPress Themes – I am open for Theme Designing

The next step to getting a good blog theme is to personalize it. This can be done by changing the theme to suit your site’s appearance, color combination, header and background images. If you are an upcoming blogger and don’t know how to do / don’t have time to do it then you can hire me for a quick mock up or a complete redesign.

• Guest Blogging, Partnerships and Advertisements are open

I am open to Guest Blogging, Strategic partnership and Private Advertisements. Although I wont be compromising on the content quality, link to sites which I would not personally vouch for and not go with Spammy or Unethical Sites. That apart, I am open for any kind of linkage.

Very thanks to our loyal readers. Remember to Subscribe to RSS Feeds or Email Updates. A lots more goodies on the way.

Have a nice day..!!

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This post would mark the half century of SmartBlogTips. As a blogger, the journey started in April when I grab this domain name and registered a web account. There after I went on with my life and left this blog dormant. But later I kept reading other famous blogs and got inspire to actually write my own blog where people would come and find post which would help them.

I intent to write more quality post and help beginner bloggers. Even though this is a very competitive field, I still choose it simply because my goal is to let my words reach the audience and not earning money or making a living (I get that done from my Day Job).

Help me with providing feedback on what topics would you like me to include via comments or Contact Page.

Before I wrap up this year with a couple of more posts, I wanted to share quick stats of this site with you.

Focus for Year 2009

The following topics I am going to focus in the next year along with other topics. So expect more content under these categories:

• • SEO for Beginners
  • Blogging for Beginners
  • Internet Marketing Tips and Blog Promotion Strategies
  • Free WordPress Themes
  • Blogger Inspiration (I am starting a new category this New Year’s Eve which I hope helps inspire my blog readers)

Stats

General

• Total Posts – 50
• Comments and Trackbacks – 48
• Backlinks – 863
• Alexa Rank – 609K

All stats are as or 26th Dec 2008. Analytics figures are missing for 2 months due to some issues. The figures have not bee adjusted for the same.

Traffic

• Total Views – 2320
• Total Page Views – 4383
• Average Time on site – 2.45 minutes
• Total Unique Visitors – 73%
• New Visits – 75% (3290 visits)

Dissection

• Referring – 60%, Search Engines – 35%, Others – 15%
• Top Source – Google
• Firefox – 58%, IE – 26%, Chrome – 7%, Others – 9%

Popular Posts

• Think different. Get noticed. – Part 1 Blog Design
• Think Different. Get Noticed. Part 2 Blog Content
• How often should you Blog?
• Top 10 SEO Mistakes and how to avoid them
• Tips to choose a good Blog Name
• 10 Very important things to check before buying Backlinks
• DeIndexed by Google? Learn out why…
• 11 Golden Rules for Logo Design
• Things to put in your Site’s Privacy Statement
• WordPress Post Excerpts : Spruce Onsite SEO and Content Presentation

Posts you wont find anywhere else

• Treat your Blog like your Mother-in-Law
• Learn good blogging tactics and strategies from the game of Chess
• Learn good blogging tactics and strategies from the game of Chess : Part II

My Network of “Upcoming Sites in 2009”

SmartBlogTips – Blogging for Beginners and Advance

SmartOnlineTips – Online, Computer and Internet Tips

Moddify – Free WP Themes, Theme Customization. SEO Consultancy. (UPCOMING)

WPLuv – Best of WordPress Sites Showcase (UPCOMING)

StumbleDigg – Online (UPCOMING)

ThinkJayant – My not so personal site. (Needs a Revamp)

Lets hope I can reach my goal for Blogger Stardom while helping enriching the Blog readers with valuable contents.

Have a nice day..!! Have a blast this New Year’s Eve..!!

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Pump the music… Bring on the drum beats… Its party time… Kind of childish, but hey I won Group Writing Contest organized by “Blog Design Studio”.

The topic was Blog Design and its Importance and my entry to it was the following post

“Blog Design – Think Different. Get Noticed.”

I would like to thank the judges, David Peralty, Jeff Chandler and Alex Cristache for choosing my entry as the winning one.

This is first post of the three part series :

• “Blog Design – Think Different. Get Noticed.“
• “Blog Content – Think Different. Get Noticed.” – coming soon
• “Blog Promotion – Think Different. Get Noticed.” – coming soon

The other wonderful entries to the contest were as follows:

1. http://www.werewp.com/design/10-steps-for-a-perfect-blog-redesign/
2. http://ubsn.net/blog/cha-cha-changes/
3. http://www.rarst.net/web/improving-blog-design/
4. http://aravindjose.com/blog/2008/11/30/the-latest-new-trends-in-blog-designs-reviewed-and-listed/
5. http://www.garyviray.com/blog-design-considerations-busby-seo-test.html
6. http://www.techbuzz.in/why-is-feedburner-subscriber-count-important-how-can-i-increase-my-feedburner-subscriber-count.php
7. http://yieldtopedestrian.com/YieldToPedestrian/?p=1143
8. http://www.se7enize.com/nice/blog-design.html
9. http://thoushallblog.com/10-tips-for-a-blog-design-makeover/
10. http://www.smartblogtips.com/part-one-blog-design-think-different-get-noticed-series/

Prize I Won

As a winner, I get to choose a Blog to be designed by the designers at Blog Design Studio themselves. I am thinking which blog should I go for to design. Pour in your suggestions. I have two up and running and two upcoming blogs:

Smart Blog Tips : Blogging, SEO, Make Money etc.

Smart Online Tips : Tech Tips, Internet Tips, Gadgets, Tech News etc.

Stumble Digg : Resources for Web Designers and Developers (Upcoming)

Moddify : WP Theme Customization, Web Development, SEO etc. (Upcoming)

*Upcoming: The sites will be up and running by December 08 end.

The result could not have come at any better time. I am thinking f redesigning this blog itself. What do you say..??

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WordPress 2.6.5 which is a minor upgrade is immediately available for download fixing one security problem with XSS exploit and three bugs.

Bug details

1. Prevents accidentally saving post meta information to a revision.
2. Prevents XML-RPC from fetching incorrect post types
3. Adds some user ID sanitization during bulk delete requests

Incase you only want to have the security update, then copy following two files from the installation package and overwrite the existing files

1. wp-includes/feed.php
2. wp-includes/version.php

Click here to download Latest WordPress Version (2.6.5)

Alternatively you can Download WordPress Automatic Upgrade plug-in and let it install and upgrade new WordPress version from within your Admin panel itself.

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WordPress 2.6.3 is a minor update to immediately patch a security vulnerability in the Snoopy library.

“Snoopy is a PHP class that simulates a web browser. It automates the task of retrieving web page content and posting forms, for example.”

WordPress uses Snoopy for fetching feeds shown in dashboard. If you do not want to update it, you can manually replace the following two files in wp-includes folder :

• class-snoopy.php
• version.php

More at the following link :

• WP 2.6.3 Update info : http://wordpress.org/development/2008/10/wordpress-263/
• Snoopy Library : http://sourceforge.net/projects/snoopy/
• WordPress latest download : http://wordpress.org/download/

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