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Goodbye, Helio
July 1, 2009 by Nicki
As of 3pm today, Jim and I are no longer Helio members. (yes, I know they are now Virgin Mobile, but apparently accounts are still separated in their system and for all intents and purposes, it’s still “Helio”) Wow, I can’t believe that two years have already passed!
My Ocean has been a really good device, but I can honestly say that now I’m glad that we upgraded. It was time to move forward and sadly, the Ocean 2 (or “O2″) isn’t near as nice as Apple’s iPhone aesthetically- (nor functionally-) speaking. So far, the AT&T service has been really good. Hopefully it’ll stay that way. (although I really DO wish they get their collective asses in gear on this MMS crap!)
So AT&T is not the devil?
Speaking specifically about their wireless service, I’ve got to admit that AT&T has made it a lot easier for me to do business with them. They’ve cleaned up the online billing process and I love their iPhone app — it’s great for paying on the spot, changing account info, checking usage stats, etc. They’ve even implemented a CSR chat function on their website. It has been great for letting me get small tasks taken care of without having to stay tied up on the phone. (which also allows me to work on other things at work while chatting with the CSR!)
I still won’t go back to them for internet or residential services, but hey I’m happy with the wireless service overall.
What about the extras?
Someone recently asked me what was to become of the fanlisting, blogroll, or other Helio-related goodies here. I think for now I’ll let them sit. If an interested party wants to take something over, I’ll gladly hand it off — or maybe I’ll kill ‘em all in a mad cleaning spree 6 months from now. You never know …
WP Themes How to: Revolving Images in the Header
February 24, 2009 by Nicki
I was contacted a while back by Barbara Weibel, a very nice lady with a question about a WordPress theme modification. She wanted to know the best way to add a set of rotating images into the header — not like the rotating images php scripts that have been making the rounds for the last few years. She needed something dynamic, similar to the “cover flow” effect used by iTunes.
Boy, that one stumped me. I’m not a Flash or Ajax guru, and Jim was tied up in his own projects. I gave her what little helpful advice I had and hoped for the best.
Barbara emailed me again last week to let me know she had found a solution. She’s used my Translucent Dreams theme as a base for her blog’s design (which, by the way, is a VERY good read if you’re looking for new bloggers to add to your blogroll!) and has found that using the NextGEN Gallery in the header accomplished the effect she was wanting.
Take a look at her blog, Hole in the Donut, and you’ll see what I’m talking about.
Barbara was nice enough to allow me to publish her notes detailing the steps she took to implement this into her blog. I took the liberty of adding some screenshots from my own test blog to help make it easier to follow along.
Note: You may need to play with the settings once you have it set up to adjust to your liking …
First, I installed and activated the WordPress NextGEN Gallery plugin. This adds a settings panel to the Dashboard that is titled “Gallery”
Second, I installed and activated the NextGEN ImageFlow add-on for the NextGEN Gallery. This shows up as an added option at the bottom of the “Gallery” settings panel on the Dashboard.
**IMPORTANT:** Be sure to upload reflect2.php and reflect3.php to your Wordpress root folder!!
Next, I created and uploaded a gallery of the photos I wanted to show up in the header using the “Add Gallery/Images options in the NextGEN Gallery settings panel. I made sure they were all the same size (500 x 333) and although the documentation says you can use vertical format photos, I limited mine to horizontal, simply because I knew they would work better in the header.
Some changes were needed in the stylesheet in order to get the design to align correctly. Add this to the style.css file:
#gallery {
height:259px;
width:800px;
position:absolute;
top:-100px;
left:40px;
}
Then I modified the header.php to be:
<body>
<div id="wrap">
<div id="header">
<div id="gallery">
<?php
echo nggShowImageFlow(2);
?>
<h1><a href="<?php echo get_option('home'); ?>/"><?php bloginfo('name');
?></a></h1>
<h4><?php bloginfo('description'); ?></h4>
</div>
</div>
<div id="sidemagic">
NOTE: The (2) in the above php echo code refers to the number of the gallery I created — your number may be different!
Then I went back to the style.css and made the h1 and h4 position absolute and tinkered with the height for the headline and sub-headline to get them to lay where I wanted them. It now looks like this:
#header {
margin:0 auto;
padding:0;
height:259px;
width:900px;
background-image:url(images/header.jpg);
background-repeat:no-repeat;
background-position:top center;
position:relative;
}
#header h1 {
font-family: Trebuchet MS, arial, sans-serif;
font-size:35px;
color:#ffffff;
line-height:normal;
position:absolute;
top:100px;
left:-30px;
}
#header h1 a, #header h1 a:hover, #header h1 a:link, #header h1 a:visited, #header h1 a:active {
color:#ffffff;
text-decoration:none;
}
#header h4 {
text-align: right;
line-height: 25px;
font-family: Trebuchet MS, arial, sans-serif;
width: 300px;
height: 80px;
overflow: hidden;
font-size: 16px;
font-weight: normal;
font-style: italic;
color: #5dc6cf;
position:absolute;
top:105px;
right:-30px;
}
Also, you’ll need to replace the header.jpg file in the images directory with this one.
You may need to tinker a bit to get everything in just the right place. The nice thing about the NextGEN Gallery plugin is that you can exclude photos with just a check mark, so I still have all 36 in the gallery and I can go back periodically and change which ones show up.
A note on gallery settings
These are suggested, but feel free to deviate to fit your theme:
Gallery, ImageFlow, General Settings:
For this one, set “Max. number of images” to zero: (Gallery, Options)
Barbara’s information
Barbara Ann Weibel, Writer/Photographer
Blog: http://holeinthedonut.com
Photo Library: http://easywebsite.net
In closing
A big thanks goes to Barbara for sharing this with me and allowing it to be posted here. Again, I hope this is helpful to some of y’all. Feel free to comment and ask questions via the comments form below!
I have a blog, now what?
October 15, 2008 by Nicki
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I am by no means an expert on site promotion, but I am asked this question pretty often:
“I have a blog. Now what do I do?”
The basics of blog promotion aren’t difficult concepts, but the process requires time, attention to detail, and focus. Most of the things I’ll cover here are pretty common sense stuff about which many of us probably would never think twice.
Is your blog REALLY done?
Once you decide, “I’m finished! Now to promote my blog!” Take a step back for a moment and look closely at your blog. Are you sure that you’re really done? Before you can start any heavy-duty blog pimping, it always helps to make sure your blog is optimized.
What does this mean?
Optimization is pretty much any little enhancements that make your blog “friendlier” — whether for your readers, or search engines, or marketing, etc.
Things to consider:
Are you using the default template?
Every blogging software or service comes with one or more default templates. Most of them are nice enough to get you started, but using one would hardly set your blog apart from the others — especially if all the blogs look the same! With the number of free blog templates growing exponentially every day, there really is no excuse for using the default template on your blog.
Link decoration: to underline or not underline? That is the question!
This one is more of a personal preference issue, but I always advise blog owners to make links stand out in their posts. Whether you prefer underlined blue links or bolded green, it doesn’t really matter as long as your reader can see that it is a link. It should be notably different from the rest of the text.
Favicon? What’s that?
Have you ever noticed a little image by the web address in your browser’s address bar when you visit certain websites or bookmark a site? That’s a favicon. You can get one made very easily with the many free services available out there. I highly recommend adding one to your blog. When a user visits or bookmarks your site, that little image can help them associate and remember your site.
Can you be contacted?
A personal web pet-peeve of mine is not being able to contact a website’s owner. Make sure you have a contact form, email address, or something available so that your visitors can reach you. Feedback is always a good thing, so make it easier to receive it!
Are you feeding your visitors?
Every blogging software and service under the sun nowadays have any number of formats available for feeds (RSS, Atom, etc.). Make sure that your feed information is located in a prominent position on your blog! This is usually in the form of a link or button. If it is not immediately noticeable, some visitors won’t bother searching for it (and therefore, won’t subscribe)!
Try to keep in mind that your visitors may not be as familiar with your site’s layout as you are. Pass your link on to loved ones and friends, ask for feedback. Discuss any problems they ran into, such as problems finding specific content, getting lost / navigation issues, etc.
A friend of mine used to say, “Make your site navigation so easy a child could use it” — if needed, borrow a child! 
Ok, just kidding, but you see where I’m going with this, right?
Ok, done. Can I start linking now?
Yes, I think at this point you are ready to start promoting your blog. Take careful consideration though. You do not want to go crazy adding links to “every Tom, Dick, and Harry”, nor do you want to ignore the whole blogosphere. Let’s start small — build your blogroll.
What’s a blogroll?
A blogroll is a list of links to other blogs that you like. Having a blogroll allows you to feature a list of favorite blogs, usually in your blog’s sidebar. One might consider blogrolls to be a sort of new “link exchange” programs. The biggest difference is that all sites who participate benefit from the added exposure of being displayed on another member’s site. It’s a good way to gain new readers and repeat visitors for your blog.
It’s an unwritten rule that if a blogger adds your blog’s link to his/her blogroll, you should reciprocate with the same. Of course, everyone approaches this with their own blogging goals in mind. Sometimes it may simply be that you may not like a blog that links to you through its blogroll, and therefore choose not to link back. Whatever the reason may be, it is considered “proper” blogging etiquette to at least review each blog that links to you through its blogroll to decide if you’ll want to add that blog or not.
Blogrolls are often used to express connections between blogs. By having a blogroll on your site, you are telling your visitors:
“Here are other blogs that I like — check ‘em out, you may like them too.”
“Here is my community — I belong to this group.”
(When linking to other blogs) “I like your site and I think my visitors will too.”
If you are new to the blogosphere, a quick way to get your bearings and branch out is by joining open blogrolls. An “open” blogroll is simply a blogroll that is open to new members. Some blogrolls are general, others are specific. Most will have a set of guidelines or criteria posted to allow you to judge for yourself whether or not you belong, or would want to join.
How do you find open blogrolls?
I enjoy adding blogrolls to many of my own sites. However, I found it increasingly hard to find blogrolls pertaining to certain topics and had yet to see a directory or index of blogrolls that are out there, available to everyone … so I decided to make my own: BlogrollDirectory.org
There you will find blogrolls grouped by topic or interest. Simply click the Location link posted and follow the directions posted on its website.
Now, on to Blog Directories!
Submitting your blog to blog directories is perhaps one of the easiest ways to gain exposure to your blog. Blog directories can often drive a good bit of “new” traffic to your site that you wouldn’t have found otherwise.
In the vast and infinite sea of the Internet, there are literally thousands of repositories and directories of links. Rather than try to list them all, I’m going to give you a few to get you started:
Start with those and branch outward. The goal isn’t to spread your link around to anyone and everyone as fast as possible, it’s to garner quality repeat traffic.
Note: Keep in mind that some directories may require registration and/or a reciprocal link!
To be continued …
I’ll be posting Part 2 of this article next month, so keep an eye out! I’ll most likely cover topics such as SEO and social media, as well as any topics requested here.
As always, feedback and constructive criticism are welcome. Simply leave your remarks via the comments form below! 
Helio and Virgin Mobile to merge
July 1, 2008 by Nicki
There have been rumors about the pairing circling around the internet for the past couple of months. Heliocity had even commented on this, but the two companies had stayed mum denying the rumors — until last Friday.
I received an email from Helio announcing the upcoming merger. Heliocity covered the announcement. Virgin Mobile is acquiring Helio.
To be honest, I’m a bit conflicted about the whole thing. On one hand, VM could bring some very cool services to Helio customers. Their negotiations with Sprint may lower our rates. All of the Helio products will continue to be carried: all apps, games, and including “in process” and upcoming devices such as the Ocean 2 (a.k.a. OZ2). From what I can tell, nothing will change service-wise for quite some time, if at all.
On the other hand though, the Helio label will be no more. No more cool blue flame logo. And as silly as it may sound, that will mean no more Helio fanlisting, no more Helio blogroll, etc. No more Helio, no more anything that embodies being a Helion — and that saddens the Hell out of me. 
MOVED and UPDATED!! WordPress Plugin: Blank Target Replacement
June 7, 2008 by Nicki
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Just an FYI for anyone using this plugin…
I have moved my Blank Target Replacement plugin to WordPress.org for better version tracking and visibility — and not to mention auto-updates for those using it. (not that I don’t want my users to come back to my site often, but even *I* have to admit that WP auto plugin update thingy is NICE!)
Version Change
If you are using this plugin, please download and install the latest version (1.0) via the link below at your convenience. All previous versions are also available there (for those of you who aren’t using WP 2.5x).
Proceed with caution; and as always, feedback and bug reports are ALWAYS welcome here!
Download
Link: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/blank-target-replacement/
Updated WordPress Plugin: Blank Target Replacement 0.3
June 4, 2008 by Nicki
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Please download the latest version of this plugin.
My Blank Target Replacement plugin has been updated again to play nicer with WP 2.5x.
Requires
WordPress version 2.5+ (older versions may not be supported, use at your own risk)
Instructions
rel="external" added.Download
Click here to download the latest version.
Caveats / Issues
I did this pretty much on the fly. If you have any Blogroll links that have other rel attributes assigned (i.e. me, neighbor, met, etc. – any of the options under Link Relationship/XFN), you may experience problems getting the link(s) to open in a new window. Best thing is to clear out any existing XFN attributes for each link.
Same thing goes for links in posts that use lightbox or another setting for the rel attribute. It may or may not work.
I have not found a graceful work-around for these yet.
Disclaimer
Use at your own risk. No warranty expressed or implied is provided. There is no guarantee that this will work for your version of WordPress, I wrote this out of need for myself and am sharing in the hopes someone else finds it useful.
Copyright / Permission
This plugin is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike license. Have fun!
Revisiting: Blogroll OPML Export
April 13, 2008 by Nicki
A comment left on my plugin announcement post has pointed me in a new direction. It turns out that this function indeed DOES exist in WordPress, but it is highly under-documented barely mentioned in the WordPress Codex. I think initially my searches were too narrow, which is why I never ran across any of the following information.
Gonahkar’s comment gave me something new to search on, and I was able to find it mentioned in the WordPress Codex under WordPress Files:
wp-links-opml.php
Produces OPML output of Links that were added to the blog via the WordPress admin menu.
A note at the top of the page states that the file descriptions are for WordPress Version 2.x. I was unable to find this file mentioned anywhere else in the documentation. However, under WordPress Features I stumbled across a reference to the export function:
Exporting
Did we say you can also export an OPML file with your list o’ links?
Very cute, guys … c’mon, where is the rest of the documentation on this? From this point, I clicked through to the section on the Links Manager. The page starts with the following:
WordPress allows you to store a set of external links, also known as your blogroll. These links can be put into categories, imported, exported, added, deleted, and edited.
However, the export feature is not mentioned again on the page, nor any others pertinent to WordPress’ current release. The only other mention that I was able to find was this:
Features
* Plugin architecture
* Custom fields
* Sub-categories
* Thumbnail creation
* OPML import and export
These are from the WordPress 1.2 changelog, which tells me that this ability has most likely been in WordPress a while. It’s highly possible it’s been forgotten, or maybe it’s been left out for a good reason. I can’t but speculate as to its reason … but at least now I know it does exist.
I may revise my plugin in the next few days to include this information and will most likely alter its purpose/function.
Updated WordPress Plugin: Blank Target Replacement 0.2
April 9, 2008 by Nicki
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Please download the latest version of this plugin.
I’ve updated my Blank Target Replacement plugin by adding a feature: any links contained in posts and pages will automatically have rel="external" added.
Requires
WordPress version 2.2 or higher — may work with previous versions, I hadn’t tested!
Instructions
Download
Click here to download the latest version. The earlier version (minus content links auto mod) is still available here.
Caveats / Issues
I did this pretty much on the fly. If you have any Blogroll links that have other rel attributes assigned (i.e. me, neighbor, met, etc. – any of the options under Link Relationship/XFN), you may experience problems getting the link(s) to open in a new window. Best thing is to clear out any existing XFN attributes for each link.
Same thing goes for links in posts that use lightbox or another setting for the rel attribute. It may or may not work.
I have not found a graceful work-around for these yet.
Disclaimer
Use at your own risk. No warranty expressed or implied is provided. There is no guarantee that this will work for your version of WordPress, I wrote this out of need for myself and am sharing in the hopes someone else finds it useful.
Copyright / Permission
This plugin is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike license. Have fun!
New WordPress Plugin: Blank Target Replacement
March 28, 2008 by Nicki
Please download the latest version of this plugin.
Ok, I haven’t tested this one a whole lot, so if you find any bugs, please use the comment box below!
Basically, I wrote this as an alternative to using the outdated target="_blank" in a link’s attributes. Using a tiny bit of javascript and the rel=”external” attribute, it’s a (hopefully) more XHTML compliant option.
This plugin allows you to mark any (or all) of your Blogroll links as ‘external’ and implements a small bit of javascript to open links in new windows. With this plugin enabled, you can also add the rel=”external” tag to any links in your post (or anywhere else in your blog) to have them open in new windows (or tabs depending on the user’s browser settings).
Requires
WordPress version 2.2 or higher — may work with previous versions, I hadn’t tested!
Instructions
Download
Click here to download the zip file.
Caveats / Issues
I did this pretty much on the fly. If you have any Blogroll links that have other rel attributes assigned (i.e. me, neighbor, met, etc. – any of the options under Link Relationship/XFN), you may experience problems getting the link(s) to open in a new window. Best thing is to clear out any existing XFN attributes for each link.
Same thing goes for links in posts that use lightshow or another setting for the rel attribute. It may or may not work.
I have not found a graceful work-around for these yet.
Disclaimer
Use at your own risk. No warranty expressed or implied is provided. There is no guarantee that this will work for your version of WordPress, I wrote this out of need for myself and am sharing in the hopes someone else finds it useful.
Copyright / Permission
This plugin is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike license. Have fun!
New WordPress Plugin: Blogroll OPML Export
March 19, 2008 by Nicki
Update: Please see this recent post regarding this WordPress function.
A few weeks back I was in need of exporting the blogroll out of one WordPress install for importing into another. I was dismayed to find that WordPress does not have this ability built-in. It seems you can import almost anything, but export nothing. 
??:
So I searched for a plugin to do this — a few hours later, the closest I came was a plugin for exporting your blogroll for importing into del.icio.us. I have modified the plugin and added OPML formatting necessary for importing into WordPress via Blogroll > Import Links.
Note: I modeled the OPML formatting after that used by Blogrolling.com so it will work there as well. It may work for other services, it may not … I don’t know because I haven’t tried. Would love to hear from anyone who’s been able to use it in another capacity and/or another service!
Requires
WordPress version 2.2 or higher — may work with previous versions, I hadn’t tested!
Instructions
Download
Click here to download the zip file.
Caveats / Issues
Problems that I ran into when importing the OPML format, all ampersands must be in a valid XHTML format (using &). Also, be sure to remove any odd characters (such as the curly apostrophes, quotes, and other characters commonly used in MS Word). If you experience an error while importing, check your OPML file first for invalid characters or bad formatting.
Also, this plugin exports from ALL link categories. I have not yet looked into a way to export from only selected ones. (and may not do so, depends on my time)
Disclaimer
Use at your own risk. No warranty expressed or implied is provided. There is no guarantee that this will work for your version of WordPress, I wrote this out of need for myself and am sharing in the hopes someone else finds it useful.
Copyright / Permission
This plugin is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike license. Have fun!
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