The Ghost blogging platform was one of 2013’s major success stories. John O’Nolan set out to create a platform designed purely for blogging. Early in the year he published a mockup of what he thought the software would look like, and when, that generated substantial interest, he created a KickStarter campaign that proved to be […]

A new year is here, and with it comes the determination to finally get started on the business or creative endeavor that you’ve been procrastinating about throughout 2013. If you want to sell something, to write, or to be creative in any other way, you’re going to need a website to show your work to […]

As I’ve mentioned in previous articles, if brands want to improve both the efficiency and the effectiveness of their content marketing efforts, they should think less like traditional marketers and more like publishers. And, it’s not only blogging brands would benefit from a more publisher-like approach to the planning of content creation. To be highly […]

Christmas is on the way, and that means sites all over the web will be cutesifying themselves in an attempt to catch some of the season’s goodwill. To be honest, I have mixed feelings about the sledging Santas and falling snow that is soon going to adorn my favorite sites. On the one hand, for […]

There are two basic strategies for monetizing content. Publishers can either generate revenue by charging for ads placed next to their content, selling the reader’s attention to advertisers. Or, they can skip the middleman and ask their readers to pay directly. In the modern online ecosystem, people generally expect content to be “free” from their […]

As a guy who does a lot of writing, I’m constantly aware of my predilection for procrastination (and alliteration). If I can put off writing something, I will. It’s not because I don’t love writing; it’s just that putting a dent into a blank page can be a significant psychological barrier (can a nonexistent dent […]

If you aren’t already familiar with JetPack, it’s a plugin for WordPress that brings a host of very useful features. It is developed by the developers behind the WordPress.com platform, and brings many of the benefits of that platform to self-hosted WordPress sites. JetPack recently saw a new release, which includes several additions that make […]

Content curation is a powerful technique for building a following for a blog and on social media. It’s also a great way to build relationships with other influencers in your niche. The basic principles of content curation are easy to understand: brands and individuals use their blog and social media channels to highlight content relevant […]

WordPress is used on over 20% of websites. It’s a huge success story and with good reason. WordPress is a powerful content management system with just the right combination of ease-of-use and configurability to appeal to both web development professionals and amateur web masters. However, a fly in the ointment of WordPress’ success is the […]

More than 20 percent of the world’s websites now run on WordPress. That’s a huge achievement for the Automattic team. Unfortunately, this massive user base presents hackers with a seductive challenge: the chance to exploit and control millions of sites at once. All they have to do is find the chink in WordPress’ armor, and […]