About two weeks ago, we covered a story about the All-in-One SEO Pack and the fact that it was no longer being supported.  To the relief of thousands of WordPress users, about a week later, we found out that someone else had resurrected the plugin.   The lesson learned was obviously that too many people had come to rely heavily on a single WordPress plugin.

Thanks to a heads up from my friend Leland at Themelab, it looks like someone has attempted to put a fork into the All-in-One SEO Pack plugin, with the release of a new plugin called Platinum SEO Pack.  Here are a few of the features that you will get on top of what AiO SEO Pack included:

1. Ability to add follow or nofollow and noindex meta tags to any post or page.
2. Automatic 301 redirect for permalink changes.
3. Nofollow links to your archives, categories, and tags pages.

To read more, or to download the Platinum SEO Pack, check out the authors page.

Statistics have long shown that rotating your advertising or affiliate banners can decrease advertising blindness and increase clicks.   More clicks makes bloggers happy and advertisers happy!

A few months ago I wrote a post about the Got Banners WordPress plugin, which is a simple WordPress plugin that was designed to allow you to rotate banners in a set location.  What it does not do is allow you to rotate multiple banners without displaying them all, meaning you can’t rotate 8 banners within 4 posts, etc.

I’ve been waiting for a suitable replacement and I believe yesterday I may have found what I was looking for.   What I’m talking about is a new free WordPress plugin by MaxBlogPress called Max Banner Ads.

To get an idea what this plugin is about, you really need to click over and check out the video demonstration that comes with it, but I will attempt to explain it here.   Max Banner Ads sort of works like the Shylock AdSense WordPress plugin in that it requires no code hacking.  You actually control your advertisements from the WordPress dashboard.

Max Banner Ads allows you to rotate several banners in a single spot or multiple spots, and you can choose from several locations, including your header, sidebar (using widgets), footer, or even within your posts.   Want to place it only in the second post?  You can do that as well!

As I mentioned above, this plugin is actually being released for free by the author, but he does ask that you write a quick review or at least mention it on your blog.   Considering the potential value of this plugin, I think that is more than fair.

[Check out the Max Banner Ads WordPress Plugin]

One of the disappointing changes in WordPress 2.5 was the removal of category ID numbers.   I thought this was just a minor oversight, but since the 2.5.1 upgrade this problem still was not addressed.

If you are looking for a category number (this is most often needed for setting up the homepage of Magazine WordPress themes), here is a really easy way you can locate it until the WordPress team adds the category number display we all took for granted before:

1) Go to Manage > Categories.

2) Hover your mouse over the category that you need the ID of.

3) Look in the lower left corner of your web browser for the ID of that category.

Here is a screenshot example:

Hopefully WordPress will again display the category ID in one of the future updates, but thankfully this workaround is really easy.

Yesterday I wrote a post explaining how to move your WordPress install within your website/server.  Today I wanted to cover how to move your WordPress install to a completely different server.

Again, the flexibility of WordPress shines, making this not overly difficult to accomplish.  If you aren’t changing your domain name, all you need to do is update your wp-config.php file and upload all of your files to their new server.

If you are changing your domain name with your move, here is the information you’ll need:

1. Backup your WordPress database.
2. Download the complete WordPress install to your hard drive and identify the folder as your OLD installation.
3. Login into your old blogs dashboard and update the Settings to reflect the website and blogs new location (both fields should be the same).
4. Now, download the complete WordPress install to your hard drive, but this time identify the folder as your NEW installation.  This will include the settings change you just made.
5. Download a copy of your WordPress database (keeping the old one) and then upload it to the new server.  You’ll want to keep the same database name and recreate the user login information (you can use your same user name and password).  If you change the database name, you’ll need to update your wp-config.php file to reflect the change.
6. Upload your NEW installation folder so that your blog is now working in its new location!

If you want to keep your old blog, you’ll need to upload the OLD folder to the OLD location of your blog and readjust the General Settings tab.

Another way to accomplish all of this is to simply make a fresh WordPress install and export/import your posts to the new location.   This isn’t the most ideal method, but it is much easier and will get the job done.

For additional information, you’ll want to consult the WordPress Codex.

There are times when you may wish to move your WordPress installation from one place on your server to another.   This often happens when there is a change in the URL of your WordPress install, such as with blog redesigns, moving to a directory, etc.

WordPress is actually very flexible, so it isn’t extremely difficult to do.  Here is the information you will need:

1. If moving to a new directory, create your new directory.
2. If moving to your root directory, make sure your root directory is ready for the new files (including the index.php file, the .htaccess file, etc.).
3. Once your new home is ready, login to your dashboard and go to the Settings tab (under General).
4. Update the WordPress Address field and Blog Address field to reflect the new location.
5. Click Update Options. (Don’t view or open your blog until all steps have been completed)
6. Move all WordPress core files to their new location.  This includes subdirectories!
7. Update your Permalink Structure to show the new location (add new directory or remove previous directory).

That should about cover it.   If attempted, you’ll want to allow some extra time for following all the steps carefully, as it is somewhat of a delicate process.   If you run into any problems, consult the WordPress Codex, which has some troubleshooting, etc.