The Pain of Switching Brands

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Blogs can be brilliant for building up a brand over time. Just look at Aaron Wall with his SEOBook and Wendy with her eMom brands.

Both are well known, powerful and influential brands.

But both are finding their current brands at odds with who they and their business represent today. Wendy wants to appeal to more than just Moms, Aaron no longer publishes a book but a full SEO training system.

What do you do when your well known brand doesn’t match with your business?

All you can do is redirect your pages to a new domain, take the hit in the search engines and do as much communication and promotion about the change as you can.

Thankfully your loyal audience will mostly be supportive while you keep their needs in mind, and the new brand stays relevant to them, plus if you pitch the change right it can be newsworthy which can help get the word out.

MoFuse, And Why Every (Non Geek) Blogger Should Use It

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If there is one thing most bloggers do not mind getting its traffic. Whether they post for attention or money (and sometimes both), bloggers are usually willing to pay any price (whether time or cash) to ensure their sites are optimized for their audience.

Even though most serious bloggers will make sure that their site is displayed properly in both Firefox (version 2 and the beta 3) and Internet Explorer (version 6, the dreaded 7 and beta 8), many however do not even consider making sure their blog can be displayed on a simple mobile phone.

Having a mobile version of your blog is important, especially if your site is receiving traffic from the eastern world (as the phones there are usually more advanced, as well as more affordable than a PC is in the west).

While most affluent bloggers and/or geeks have the spare change and time to optimize their weblogs, many bloggers do not.

Fortunately for the rest of the population (this author included), you do not have to worry about making your site mobile friendly, as a new startup called MoFuse will do the heavy lifting for you for free.
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MySpace Mobile: Better Late Than Never?

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The rest of the world now joins AT&T and MVNO Helio in surfing MySpace on mobile devices. There is no subscription required, as the current business model is advertiser funded. After several months in beta, MySpace Mobile it’s now available to the public.

The new mobile site allows members to access all of the site’s normal features, including the ability to add or update blog posts and comments. While most hardcore bloggers do not do their daily writing via MySpace, the mobile aspect has the potential to bring some bloggers back into the fold.

Or does it?

With just about every major blog platform offering some sort of mobile blogging option (or Websites like Utterz), will there be a high demand for MySpace mobile? Short of adding a “friend” while on the go, I’m really not sure.

WordPress 2.5 Plugins Beware: Automatic Plugin Upgrade Problems

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WordPress 2.5 iconThe Release Candidate 1 for WordPress 2.5 has just been released for beta testers, and Darren of Unfolding Neurons warns about using the new Automatic Plugins upgrades feature due in WordPress 2.5, which is in the final stages for release within the next two weeks.

WordPress 2.5 comes with the ability for blog owners to upgrade their plugins automatically via the Plugins Page. “Automatic Upgrade” means that instead of having to download the plugin and then ftp it to your server, you can simply click the “upgrade automatically” link and WordPress will take care of everything for you.

It’s a great idea and definitely one that will work okay with most basic plugins but here’s the problem(s)…

WordPress 2.5 Automatic Plugin Upgrade Feature
He goes on to explain that the Automatic Plugin Upgrade feature will not deactivate and reactivate your WordPress Plugin during the upgrade process. You have to do this manually.
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WordPress 2.5: get a “sneak peek” before launch

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WordPress 2.5 is almost ready to go. Last week, we’d expected a St Patrick’s Day launch, but it looks as if we’ll have to wait just a few more days for the official launch.

That doesn’t mean you can’t get a sneak peek of the new version. Release Candidate 1 (RC1) of WordPress 2.5 is now available for download, with the team looking for feedback.

According to today’s blog entry, the software is “basically done and stable”, and:

could be released today, but we’d like to incorporate feedback from a wider audience before making it available to the general public. After a few days of your feedback we’ll set a final release date.

As always, there’ll be much more information in Lorelle’s excellent WordPress Wednesday columns.