How to Optimize and Reduce MySQL Database Size?

MySQL database is the back-end of many online web applications. WordPress users might've seen this in their c-panel but only a few does knew the use of it.

Optimizing MySQL database can greatly influence the overall size of your database, thus reducing the effect on your WordPress blog loading time. Once optimized, one of my blog's database went from 100MB to 15MB.

Does Optimizing the MySQL database deletes my data?

Its absolutely false! Optimization doesn't really delete any data. It is simply like De-fragmenting a database. With the database growing old, data gets deleted and added resulting in number of empty rows.

Although the rows are empty, they still contribute to overall size of the MySQL database and so optimizing the MySQL database helps in deletion of "overhead" (i.e., empty rows) and the data will be arranged well in your database.

How to Optimize and Reduce Size of MySQL Database?

1. Go to your cpanel > phpMyAdmin.
2. Select your WordPress database file associated with your blog (in particular).
3. Select all the tables and click "Export" (backup your database. Just in case).
4. Again select all your tables and click on the drop-down menu with label "with selected" at the bottom.
5. From the drop-down menu, select "optimize table".
   
6. That's it! Your MySQL database is well-optimized now.

Starting now, whenever you see 'overhead' building, optimize your database tables to keep it healthy.

5 Widgets to Improve Your Wordpress Site

Wordpress is the biggest blogging platform in the world, and for good reason. It is easy to use, has tons of themes and add-ons and can do almost anything. For new users, however, the choices can be a bit overwhelming. After you’ve chosen what your blog theme is, the next thing you have to do is choose your widgets, Wordpress’ name for add-ons. Here are five widgets that every Wordpress blogger should use.

1. Twitter Feed – Connecting your blog to social media is a huge advantage. Wordpress makes it easy with a Twitter feed widget. Simply drag the widget into your side panel and connect your Twitter account. Choose the number of Tweets displayed, I recommend between five and ten, and make sure your new posts are automatically sent to your Twitter account. This way your Twitter followers will know when you’ve updated your blog site and vice-versa.


2. Calendar – I love to see how many times a month I post. It helps me keep track of my posting patterns and also helps my readers to see what they’ve missed. A calendar widget works perfectly for this. A widget similar is a milestone widget. You can get a countdown to a certain date, like a wedding, and that way you and your readers can count down to the special moment.
   


3. Follow/Like Button – Once you’ve gotten readers, you want to keep them. The best ways to keep your readers engaged is by a like or follow button widget. A follow button allows readers to enter their email address and be notified of updates via that. Facebook like buttons are also great for both disseminating your blog and allowing readers to unite their reading experience with their social media lives.


4. Text Box – I love text boxes! No matter what you want your readers to know, you can stick it in a text box. On my blog I used the text box widget to add links to my alternate websites, like ones for my writing and photography, and even Tumblr. With some simple html encoding, turn the text into hyperlinks and allow readers to click to go to your alternate sites and interests. Like a text box, the image box widget allows you to post a photo that you want prominently displayed at all times. Author boxes do the same thing, but it seems kind of strange to have a box labeled ‘authors’ when it is your blog!


5. Tag Clouds – A fun, creative and visual way of showing what topics you write about, a tag cloud widget gives your readers and yourself the opportunity to really see what you post on. Common tag words are larger and also come with the capability of being clicked on so that readers can immediately be taken to the post or posts that used that tag.

There are oodles more widgets. Contingent on what your blog is about, what your other interests are, and how socially linked you are, there are sure to be widgets your blog can’t live without. However, these five should at least get your blog on its feet and you on the path to successful Wordpress blogging. Bon chance!

Author Bio : This is a guest post by Coleen Torres from local phone service. You can find more about her at her profile.

Protect Your Wordpress Blog Using .htaccess File

Wordpress is the best content management system of all the available open-source CMS softwares out there. However, wordress can easily be hacked if you are not careful. There were many ways to protect wordpress blog but the .htaccess method of protecting wordpress blog is the best till date.

Simply copy & paste the following piece of code into your .htaccess file which is located at the root of your wordpress installation.

Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} (\<|%3C).*script.*(\>|%3E) [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} GLOBALS(=|\[|\%[0-9A-Z]{0,2}) [OR]
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} _REQUEST(=|\[|\%[0-9A-Z]{0,2})
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php [F,L]

Remember to take a backup of your .htaccess file before making any changes. You can restore it with the original if something goes wrong.

How to Insert Google Adsense Ads Inside Your Wordpress Posts?

Earlier, we've discussed how to insert adsense ads inside blogger posts and now lets talk about inserting Google Adsense ads anywhere in your wordpress posts body. Embedding adsense advertisements in between the content helps to get high CPC adsense ads as well as good Adsense CTR. There were many wordpress plugins that perform this task easily, but doing so might eventually increases your wordpress blog's loading time.

And so, its better to manually perform this task as you can insert adsense ads anywhere inside your wordpress using just a shortcode.

How to Insert Google Adsense Ads Inside Your Wordpress Posts?

1. Go to Dashboard > Appearance > Editor
2. Open functions.php file
3. Insert the following piece of code anywhere in the functions.php file
   

   function showads() {
   return '<script type="text/javascript"><!--
   google_ad_client = "pub-1234567891011122";
   google_ad_slot = "4668915978";
   google_ad_width = 468;
   google_ad_height = 60;
   //-->
   </script>
   <script type="text/javascript"
   src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
   </script>
   ';
   }
   
   add_shortcode('adsense', 'showads');

   
   
4. Save changes.

And now, whenever you write a new blog post, switch to HTML mode and insert the following tag at the position where you'd like to display your Google Adsense ad.

[adsense]

Note: Don't forget to replace the above adsense code highlighted in red with your own high performing adsense format.

Hope you enjoyed this tip. Please consider sharing it.

Open Source Wordpress CMS Alternatives, 2011

Wordpress is undoubtedly the best content management system out there and when it comes to Search Engine Optimization, nothing could beat it. But this doesn't imply that you should use necessarily use wordpress as there are several best alternatives to wordpress CMS on the Internet. Let's dig into those details now.

Best Open Source Wordpress Alternative CMS in 2011

1. Geeklog: If you're an experience Wordpress user and would like to try out something fresh, Geeklog is for you. Its CMS is loaded with all the basic features that Wordpress is providing such as spam protection, trackbacks, commenting, etc...that is required to successfully run a blog.
   

   Highly customizable and less updates (for those who're frustrated with frequent wordpress updates).
   

   
2. Nucleus: Said to be the second fastest growing content management system (CMS) after Wordpress. All its features are somewhat similar to Wordpress and unlike "Movable Type", it’s extremely lightweight.
   
3. Drupal: Probably the best alternative and the arch rival of Wordpress. Its CMS is powerful enough that you can use it for developing websites such as news website, e-commerce website, blogs etc...Only drawback that it has is the SEO friendliness. You'll need to play within to make it SEO friendly which is tiresome. If you are a player (programmer), then this is the best and most recommended CMS for you.
   
4. Joomla: It's the second best alternative and a rival of wordpress. Mostly used to develop complex/ clutter free websites and applications. The best advantage of Joomla over Drupal is that you need not have to be a geek to work on it. Just the basic processing skills are enough.
   
5. Movable Type: With this, you can run either a complete website or a web blog without facing any hassle. There are several themes and plugins to make your work easier. However, the bad thing about this CMS is that the plugins are not lightweight and so it puts a lot of weight on your blog, making your blog to load slower.
   
6. b2Evolution: A highly advanced content management system (web tool) which is best for newsfeed managing, photo streaming, and of-course blogging.
   
7. Lifetype: A standard wordpress alternative which gives you all the good features of wordpress except the flexibility of theme customization.
   
   

If there are any other best Wordpress alternatives, please do let us know in the comments.

Configure .htaccess File to Fight Spammers on your Wordpress Blog

Worried about comment spamming? Though there are several wordpress plugins that fight spamming, this .htaccess trick can help prevent spam bots in directly accessing your wp-comments-post.php file, which is actually used to post comments on your wordpess blog.

Open your .htaccess file and copy-paste the below code. Don't forget to replace "yoursitename" (without the quotes) with your domain URL.

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD} POST
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} .wp-comments-post\.php*
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !.*yoursitename.* [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^$
RewriteRule (.*) ^http://%{REMOTE_ADDR}/$ [R=301,L]
</IfModule>

This .htaccess trick will definitely reduce the number of spam comments on your blog.

Note: Remember to backup your .htaccess file before making any changes.

How to Display Latest Google+ Updates on Wordpress?

Google+ is the latest Google Project that tasted success immediately after it's announcement (though it's in beta). If you're using Google+ and want your status updates to be displayed on your wordpress blog, then the following tips will help to display your latest Google Plus updates just like Facebook Status updates on a wordpress blog.

1.Display Latest Google+ Updates on Wordpress Using RSS

This method allows you to access your Google+ profile RSS feeds and display your updates.

Ex: https://plus.google.com/101851192312459339729/ is my Google Plus profile.

Now, my ID will be 101851192312459339729. In the same way, note down your Google+ profile ID.

And next, copy down the below code and paste it in your template files wherever you want the updates to be appeared. Remember to replace the ID in Red with your Google+ ID.

<?php
include_once(ABSPATH.WPINC.'/rss.php');
$googleplus = fetch_rss("http://plusfeed.appspot.com/101851192312459339729");
echo '<a href="';
echo $googleplus->items[0]['link']; echo '">';
echo $googleplus->items[0]['summary'];
echo $googleplus->items[0]['updated']; //Optional
echo '';
?>

2.Using Wordpress Plugin to Display Recent Google+ Updates

This is the most easy way to display your latest updates from Google+ in your wordpress blog. Simple, install the Google+ Plus WordPress Widget and then enter your profile ID to let it start functioning.

Automaticaly Replace Internal Links with New URLs in Wordpress Posts

As you might've noticed, we've moved from techzene.com to techzene.org recently. And changing all the internal links to the new URLs is really a tedious process if you do it manually. So to simplify it, you can use an SQL command which will replace all your internal posts in wordpress to similar new domain URLs.

For ex: techzene.com/about/ will be replaced with techzene.org/about/

How to Replace all the Internal links with new blog URLs?

1. Login to your Hosting control panel
   
2. Search for PHPMyAdmin and click on it
   
3. Now, click on the SQL console tab and enter the following SQL Query
   

UPDATE wp_posts SET guid = replace(guid, 'http://www.oldsite.com','http://www.newsite.com');

This query will now replace all the internal links with newsite URLs.

Note: This will work only if you have the same permalink structure in your old and new blogs.

Display Adsense Ads Only on Older Posts in Wordpress

Did you ever wanted to display adsense ads only on older posts? Doing so will greatly improve your readership why because the people who read your blog regularly will not get distracted from the content due to the advertisements. And as most of the visits to your old blog posts will be from organic listings, their visit will result in high RPM. So in this scenario, both you and your reader will get benefited.

How to Display Adsense Advertisements only on Old Posts?

1. Login to your wordpress dashboard
   
2. Go to Appearance -> Editor
   
3. Select Single.php file (found on the right side panel)
   
4. Add the following code where you'd like to display your adsense ads.
   

   <?php
   if (strcmp( date("Y-m-d", strtotime("-5 day")), get_the_time("Y-m-d") ) > 0) {
   ?>
   #Replace this line with your adsense code#
   <?php
   }
   ?>
   



5. In the above code, replace the #commented line with your adsense code (See High Paid Adsense Ad Formats). Also don't forget to replace the digit "5" with your desired number (number of old days).
   

That's it! From now on, Adsense ads will not appear on your new posts and will only visible to visitors who landed on posts older than 5 days (as per our above example)

Remove WordPress Replytocom URLs Completely from Google [WorkingSolution]

How to remove ?replytocom URLs from Google search and prevent duplicate content issues?

Remove Wordpress ?replytocom URLs

In wordpress blogs, if you've enabled reply to comments plugin, then it will create separate URLs for every comment and so the duplicate posts evolve easily. After the Google Panda Update, sites having duplicate content are being penalized very badly and so it is advisable to fix the ?replytocom issue as soon as possible.

There are 3 ways to prevent ?replytocom URLs from being indexed. Let's see what they are..

1] Google Webmaster Tools

• GWT has an option of tracking parameter handling where Google itself decides what to index. You need to change this setting.
  

  Goto -> GWT -> www.YourSite.com -> Site Configuration -> Settings -> Parameter Handling
  

• In there, find the option called "replytocom" and click on "Edit" beside it.


• Now change the option to "Ignore" from "Let Google decide".
  


• Click "Save" button which you'll find at the bottom.

From now on, Google will ignore the replytocom URLs. You'll also need to perform the 2nd STEP.

2] Remove ?replytocom URL's using Robots.txt file

• Add the following tag to your robots.txt file in addition.
  

  Disallow: *?replytocom
  

3] Thirdly, Use the Replytocom Redirector Plugin which redirects all the bots to the correct URL, saving CPU and network resources.

Suggestion: It's recommended to perform all the 3 steps above to completely remove ?replytocom URLs from search.

Secure Your WordPress Blog to Stay Away from Security Threats

Hacking has become so popular these days and Wordpress blogs are pretty easy to hack if not secured properly. Once if the blog is hacked, a lot of money, efforts spent to make it popular will all be lost. So below are a few tips that will help to make your wordpress blog stay away from security threats.

1. Update your WordPress Version:

Wordpress is a web based software and so it always contains major/minor bugs that may be used by the hackers to get access to your blog. That is the reason, wordpress programmers constantly improve their software thus making it more stable in dealing with these kind of hackers.

So always remember to update you wordpress version immediately when released.

2. Only Use Strong Passwords:

This is the easiest mode of gaining access to any website/blog if you use your personal info like name, birthday, phone number etc..as your password. Always try to make it so complex that others couldn't even think about what your password may be..


An example of such password: A123abcd@(myWeb[dot]com)


The above is just an example. Use the combination of Uppercase, Lowercase, Numerical and Special Characters for more secured password. Try to change it regularly (atleast once for every 3 months) and store it at a safe place (except in digital format).


3. Make Use of WP-Config File:

Adding a secret key will help protect your configuration settings from unauthorized intrusions. WP-Config file contains secure information related to MYSQL database names, passwords etc... So if you don't want your wordpress to be hacked, use the secret key.

To setup the secret key, visit visit https://api.wordpress.org/secret-key/1.1/ and copy the appeared information into your wp-config.php file.


4. Use the .htaccess file wisely:

.htaccess file is the key file that allows setting up the access rights to various directories. So, Make proper use of the .htaccess file to limit the access to your website folders. You can even set a particular IP address from which you can access your information. Visit AskApache tutorial for more details on "How to setup .htaccess File?".


5. Control the File Permissions

There are sometimes, where the default permissions set during the wordpress installation may not be acceptable in terms of security. In those situations, you need to recheck them manually and change the file permissions according to your theme/hosting requirements. This you can do either by using FTP client or right from the admin panel.

For more details on File Permissions, visit the WordPress Codex.

So,follow the above guidelines to secure your wordpress blog from getting hacked. Do share with us, if you've any more ideas of protecting wordpress blogs from security threats.

BitNami made the Local Installation of Wordpress Easier in Windows, Macand Linux

I'm sure almost every webmaster installs a copy of Wordpress on his local machine i.e., desktop to test new wp themes, wp plugins and also as a backup locally. Earlier we used to Install Wordpress using WAMP and XAMPP which involves installation, configuration of Apache server, MySQL etc...

But, with the introduction of BitNami, installing wordpress has become more easier because it cut shorts all the above said steps.

Simply, Download BitNami Wordpress Installer according to your system requirements (either Windows, Mac or Linux) and install it. Just follow the steps by clicking next-next-next until the end. Everything will be configured automatically making your work more easier.

Once the installation is completed, you can access your wordpress blog at http://localhost/wordpress



BitNami wordpress is just a part of BitNami Stacks which is a CMS and so you can also install different modules like Joomla, Moodle, Drupal, PhpBB etc.. apart from wordpress. However, you'll need to install the base package to run any module.

How to Install Wordpress Using XAMPP on Linux Server?

We previously posted an article about Installing Wordpress using Wamp server on Windows. And now, we're going to discuss How to Install Wordpress on Linux Server Using XAMPP?

• First of all, Download the Xampp Server in Linux system.
  

• Extract it into /opt folder in your system files. To do it using the terminal, type the following command
  

sudo tar xvfz xampp-linux-1.7.3a.tar.gz -C /opt

• Once the Xampp is installed on your system, you should start a local server to facilitate the working. For that, type the following command in terminal
  

sudo /opt/lampp/lampp start

• Now, its the time for testing. Type the URL http://localhost/ and check whether you get a welcome message of Xampp.
  

• After the Xampp is installed on your linux, you need to download the WordPress Stable build from WordPress.org.
  

• Extract the downloaded file into /opt/lampp/htdocs/ folder
  

• Now, we require a Database for our wordpress site. You can create a Database by navigating to http://localhost/phpmyadmin

• Remember to change the wp-config.php file permissions to avoid extra work. To let it give read-write permission to the WordPress folder inside /htdocs, Type the following terminal command for the same.
  

sudo chmod a+rw /opt/lampp/htdocs/wordpress/ -R

• And now, navigate to the wordpress site - http://localhost/wordpress/ and provide the information related to Wordpress database name that you created in the above step. Note that the username should be root and the password field can be left empty.

• Next, provide the username and other info in the further steps to access your wordpress site.
  

Isn't that easy? The Wordpress installation might differ from Windows to Linux, but administering the Wordpress Dashboard is the same with both the Operating systems.

Happy Blogging :)

Wordpress Editor Keyboard Shortcuts

WordPress Keyboard Shortcuts save a lot of time by letting you to perform your actions on the Wordpress Editor quickly. Using these keyboard short keys make your job even more easier. The shortcuts listed below work for two different categories in the Wordpress Editor Window such as HTML Editor Mode and Visual Editor Mode.



Keyboard Shortcuts for Wordpress HTML Editor

Blockquote: Alt+SHIFT+q
Bold: Alt+SHIFT+b
Code: Alt+SHIFT+c
Insert date/time: Alt+SHIFT+s
Insert IMG URL: ALT-SHIFT-m
Italics: Alt+SHIFT+i
Line Break: SHIFT+Enter
Link: Alt+SHIFT+a
List Item (li): Alt+SHIFT+l
Ordered List (ol): Alt+SHIFT+o
Publish the Post: Alt+SHIFT+p
Read More: Alt+SHIFT+t
Redo: CTRL+y
Strikethrough: Alt+SHIFT+d
Undo: CTRL+z
Unordered List (ul): Alt+SHIFT+u

Wordpress Visual Editor Keyboard Shortcuts

Address: CTRL+9
Advanced Editor (Kitchen Sink): Alt+SHIFT+z
Align Center: Alt+SHIFT+c
Align Left: Alt+SHIFT+l
Align Right: Alt+SHIFT+r
Edit HTML: Alt+SHIFT+e
Format: CTRL+8
H1 Header: CTRL+1
H2 Header: CTRL+2
H3 Header: CTRL+3
H4 Header: CTRL+4
H5 Header: CTRL+5
H6 Header: CTRL+6
Paragraph: CTRL+7

These shortcuts will be a time saver for you while writing any post. Please do share if you know any other shortcuts that are useful other than the above list.

Prevent Personal Visits and Impressions from Being Tracked by GA whilein Preview Mode

Wordpress users (including me) always try to preview their themes or posts while editing which sends wrong information to the Google Analytics account, thus enabling Analytics to add wrong data (our own clicks and impressions).

To prevent our own visits from being tracked while editing or previewing, here is a work around.

Recommended: Google Analytics Tracking Code Placement: Before Head or Body Tag?

Replace your current Google Analytics Tracking Code with the following code.

<?php if( !is_preview()) { ?>
#Insert Google Analytics Code Here#
<?php } ?>

That's it! From now on, all your visits to the preview mode will not be tracked in GA.

Note: Do take the backup of the file before you try this.

How to Display Wordpress Categories in 2 Columns Instead of Single Col?

Wordpress Users will create a huge number of categories in their blogs which sometimes becomes a tough job to list them all in a single column due to less space in the sidebar. So if we could split the categories list into two or more columns, we can save more space and it looks even more better.

Generally, the following code is used in the wordpress template to call the categories list (found in sidebar.php file)

<?php wp_list_categories(); ?>

Now, let's see how to split the category section into 2 columns. Find the above code and replace it with the below code

<?php
$cats = explode("<br />",wp_list_categories('title_li=&echo=0&depth=1&style=none'));
$cat_n = count($cats) - 1;
for ($i=0;$i<$cat_n;$i++):
if ($i<$cat_n/2):
$cat_left = $cat_left.'<li>'.$cats[$i].'</li>';
elseif ($i>=$cat_n/2):
$cat_right = $cat_right.'<li>'.$cats[$i].'</li>';
endif;
endfor;
?>
<ul>
<?php echo $cat_left;?>
</ul>
<ul>
<?php echo $cat_right;?>
</ul>

Save your Template. The above code will separate your categories into lists.

Now you have to make some modifications to your style.css file to add some styles

.right {float:left; width:140px;}
.left {float:left; width:140px;}

Modify the above dimensions according to your template dimensions. That's it...:)

Also Read: How to Display Post Tags in WordPress? and How to Install WordPress on Computer?

How to Display or Show Post Tags in Wordpress Blogs?

Post Tags, a real good feature of WordPress when compared to blogger. The good thing about these post tags is that Google also indexes the tags along with other links i.e., it treats the tags as links.

Many a times wordpress templates come up with in-built feature to show either individual post tags or “tag cloud” in the single post pages. But some themes (like techzene.org) by default do not come with showing post tags on single post pages. In such cases, we should add the script manually to our template to enable showing the wordpress post tags.

Add any one of these following codes to your “single.php” file with in The Loop. [You'll find "single.php" in "Editor" tab under "Appearance" Menu]

1. Option A : To Separate Tags by Comma
   

<p><?php the_tags(); ?></p>


2. Option B : To Separate Tags by Arrows
   

   <?php the_tags('Social tagging: ',' > '); ?>
   

3. Option C : To Show tags as lists
   

   <?php the_tags('<ul><li>','</li><li>','</li></ul>'); ?>
   

Don't forget to back up your template before you make any changes (Just in Case).

Installing Wordpress & WAMP Server Locally on your Computer

Many people (blogspot users) feel wordpress as alien platform because they aren’t familiar with the wordpress Platform. So to start understanding it, you should use it by creating a free account on wordpress.com. If you have any problems modifying your wordpress online, try to install wordpress on your local server i.e., your desktop.

There are many advantages of installing wordpress locally.

* You’ll get familiar with using wordpress and database
* Easy to make changes offline and test if they are done perfectly or not and save it online.

How to start with the local wordpress installation?

1. Download WAMP Server and WordPress


2. Install WAMP on your computer.


3. Now extract the WordPress.zip file. Create a folder under “C:wampwww” and name it as WordPress. Copy all the files in the zip folder into the newly created folder.


4. Start WAMP and start all the services by left clicking on it in the task bar.


5. Click on Phpmyadmin and create a database for your wordpress install. Give a name to the database (say demo)


6. Open “http://localhost/wordpress” and click on “create a configuration file“.


7. Now Enter the details as mentioned below.
   

   Database name : Database name you have created (wordpress)
   Username : root
   Password : Leave it blank
   database host : Keep it default (Localhost)
   Database prefix : Keep it default (wp_)
   

8. Click on Submit. On next screen click on Run setup


9. On the next screen add Blog title and Email. Search visibility option will not matter here as we are working on Local environment.


10. On the next page , copy the password and save it for future reference. Login with the password in the screen and user name as admin.
    

Bingo! You just created a wordpress environment for yourself on your desktop. Now upload themes you like and do everything which you can’t try on your online server. Once you're OK with all your customizations, you can just make it live.

A Little about Wordpress

Wordpress is an open-source blog-publishing platform powered by PHP and MySQL and is licensed under the GPL.

The first version of Wordpress is released on May 27, 2003 by Matt Mullenweg. Since then it has grown to be the largest self-hosted blogging tool in the world. Being an open source project, wordpress is free to use and also open to develop without paying a license fee to anyone.

There are two different versions of wordpress, one is Wordpress.com and the other being Wordpress.org.

About Wordpress.Com



It is similar to that of blogspot.com which let users to create free blogs based on wordpress (Ex: myblog.wordpress.com). A very big disadvantage of wordpress.com based blogs is that they can't be monetized or customizable. You can only use the options that are offered to you and cannot go beyond those limitations.

About Wordpress.Org

You can download and install the software script (wordpress build) that was found on this site. To install, you need to have a web host who meets the minimum requirements of wordpress such as PHP and MySQL supported web hosting servers. Once you are done with the setup, you are free to customize it as you needed and you can also monetize using the advertising programs.

Advantages of Wordpress

The first and the main advantage of Wordpress is the "permalinks" option which let users to set the URL structure as they like (which is not at all possible in blogger). It has an inbuilt capability of performing SEO tactics which help to rank our blog in search engines.

Though started as just a blogging system, wordpress has evolved to be used as a complete CMS and so you can customize it as you like using different wordpress plugins, widgets and themes.

Key Developers of Wordpress

Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little were co-founders of the project. The core contributing developers include Ryan Boren, Mark Jaquith, Matt Mullenweg, Andrew Ozz, and Peter Westwood.

WordPress is also developed by its community, including WP testers, a group of volunteers who test each release. They have early access to nightly builds, beta versions and release candidates. Errors are documented in a special mailing list, or the project's Trac tool.

Though largely developed by the community surrounding it, WordPress is closely associated with Automattic, the company founded by Matt Mullenweg.

Info & Image Credits : [Wordpress] and [Wikipedia]

Automatically Empty Trash Folder in Wordpress

The most frustrating problem every blog owner faces is "SPAM comments". Dealing with numerous SPAM comments is really a tedious job. There are some plugins like "Delete All Pending Comments" which helps in deleting all comments in bulk. And the deleted comments will be moved to Trash folder. It's again a big problem to go to Trash folder and delete those manually.

To speed up the task and reduce personal intervention, there is a small hack which allows us to empty the trash automatically without having to do it manually each time.

1. Login to your FTP and Download wp-config.php file and edit it.
   
2. Add below code in it
   

define('EMPTY_TRASH_DAYS', 5 );


3. Save the file and upload it back.
   

In the above command, the digit 5 states that for every 5 days, the trash need to be deleted. Replace the number with the number of days you desire.

Note: You can also open the wp-config.php file direct by logging into your control panel and edit it.