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Google+For almost a year I’ve been relying on the (quite good) Hybrid framework with my own custom additions based on Twitter’s Bootstrap framework–and 30+ plugins to tweak it to be just so. With the newest updates to Bootstrap, I wanted to update everything–but what I had, while functional, was brittle and hard to optimize. The solution? Re-work and re-implement the good; replace the bad, and the slow, and the broken.
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My latest top five tweaks, tips, and plugins for WordPress
I love WordPress for its crazy flexibility and endlessly new plugins. I regularly take advantage of this to tweak and change my own site–and you can too! So what have I been doing lately with my favorite platform? Some of these are easy–just install a plugin–while some require more advanced knowledge to implement—but all of them will supercharge your WordPress installation.
The irrelevance of blog advertisements: a publisher’s lament
After running a (horribly unscientific) poll on my law & technology blog for several months, I discovered that less than 15% of people voting found any of the Google-served advertisements to be relevant (not unwanted… irrelevant). This is a problem.
WordPress under Nginx and Varnish with W3TC
I decided to switch to a Virtual Private Server (VPS) so that I could have more flexibility and control over my server environment. I selected VM Storm based on a review of “low-end” VPS providers (since this is my personal tinkering platform I don’t need to pay extra for a high-end name). I then added Nginx as my Web server, Varnish as a front-end cache, WordPress for blogging, and W3TC as a WordPress performance enhancer.
How I use a blog in my research and writing
As someone who does not blog to earn money (I like to pay my hosting fees, but that’s only because I’m a poor grad student), I thought I’d run through how and why I blog, and why I find it a critical part of my “real” work of academic research and writing.
Five useful blogging tools
Looking for some useful tools that can help enhance your blog and your blogging? Here’s a list of some of my favorites.
Six more of the best WordPress plugins
I admit it. I’m a WordPress plugin junkie. I’m continually updating, adding, removing, and adjusting the list of plugins I have running this site. Here are six of my current favorites.
Five sources of free photographs for your blog
Is the future of scholarship social? Should it be?
Reflecting on the release of Apple’s iPad, David Weinberger suggests that it is a device focused on consuming content and not producing it, and argues that the true future of reading is to become more social. Jim Milles questions scholars’ desire for this vision of the future.
Want clients? Be helpful and do good
“Be helpful and do good” is a deceptively simple strategy: just go out and help people, and clients will find you. (Just don’t forget to make it easy to be found!)
How to write attributions for the Creative Commons licensed images you use on your blog
I’ve found that pictures shared under a Creative Commons (CC) license (of all flavors) are a great resource for bloggers who want artwork to accompany their posts. I’ve also realized that not everyone, myself included, has always done an adequate job of meeting the attribution requirements of CC licenses. To help remedy this, here are my recommendations for doing this properly in a blog.
Finding the diamonds in the rough in the "blogosphere"
I’ve been giving a lot of thought over the weekend to the problem of finding good content buried amidst all the noise on the Internet, especially when it comes to blog articles from lesser-known sources. (This is true for readers looking for quality content, but it’s also true for authors seeking readers.)
Five lesser-known — but great — WordPress plugins
Five great, although lesser-known, WordPress plugins: Login LockDown, SexyBookmarks, wp-Typography, WP Greet Box, and WP Minify.
Using a blog to get a job
A blog can be a very useful way for a lawyer looking for work to find connections and, hopefully, get a job.
BlawgIT's introduction to "fair use"
Brett Trout has a useful introduction to “fair use” up on BlawgIT. The goal is to help you “spot the issues” and avoid some common urban legends. Recommended.
Disruption and change in publishing
Michael Nielsen wrote a stellar piece dealing with disruptive changes that doom old business models: newspapers and science publishers, to mention his examples. He does a particularly good job at explaining how this could happen even without anyone doing anything wrong or stupid.
